THE 



SOUL'S CRY 

BY 

H. W. BOLTON, 

PASTOR OF THE FIRST M. E. CHURCH 
OF CHICAGO, ILL. 

Author of "Home and Social Life," "Patriotism," Etc. 

INTRODUCTION BY 



REV. C. C. MCCABE, D. D. 




CHICAGO. 
J, DECKER, PUBLISHER 

1890 




TO 

The Young Men of the First M. E. Church of Chicago, 

Who have so cheerfully and efficiently assisted the pastor 
during the past five years, this volume is prayer- 
fully dedicated by the author, 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1890. 
By HORACE W. BOLTON, 
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington 



(4) 



PREFACE. 

The Sermons found in this volume are just what 
the title implies, "The Cry of the Soul" that longs 
to help men to a grander conception of life's possi- 
bilities, a larger faith in the abiding and eternal 
realities, and a more perfect consecration of present 
interests in view of future glory. 

Should the reader in the perusal of these pages 
be helped to a higher appreciation of the joys to be 
attained through the "glorious gospel of the blessed 
God," the author will be repaid. 

H. W. BOLTON, 



(5) 



INTRODUCTION. 



"Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance 
of his friend." 

This is true socially, but how wonderfully is its truth illus- 
trated when the friends bear the relation of preacher and 
hearer. When one stands in the pulpit and the other sits in 
the pew. The vivifying effect of the countenance is never so 
great as when the mind and heart and soul are dwelling upon 
divine themes. The conversation of this world, however 
friendly it may be, is poverty stricken when compared to that 
high converse which the messenger of God has with his people. 
Then, indeed, the soul speaks through the countenance irradi- 
ates it; shines through it as through a veil. 

A man once arose in love-feast in the west, and testified that 
he had been brought to Christ by the sight of John Fletcher's 
face, as he passed the chapel where he was preaching. Not a 
word of his message did he hear but the vision of that trans- 
figured countenance haunted him till he gave his heart to God 
and found for himself the peace and joy portrayed therein. 

It is better to hear sermons than to read them, but next to 
hearing the living voice of the living preacher, is reading his 
written words. These sermons are selections made from the 
gathered stores of a long and successful ministry The young 
preacher can here find "thoughts that breathe and words that 
burn." By a very conscious and honorable absorption he can 
take in these facts, incidents, illustrations, statistics, interpre- 
tations of Scripture and use them to strengthen and enrich his 
own productions. 

He will find here much to set his own intellect aflame. 
There is no copyright on celestial fire. The originality of that 
is with God. Isaiah could not claim originality for the effects 
which followed the preaching of his faltering lips after they 
were touched with a live coal from off the altar. 

This is the main benefit to be derived from reading the 
sermons of successful preachers To read them, absorb them, 
preach them as original, is dishonest and demoralizing to the 
last degree. To read them, to garner into memory's storehouse 
their ' 'beaten gold, "" to catch their enthusiasm, and with the 
strength that comes from the "shoulder touch" of comrades, 
deliver God's message in the ' ' demonstration of the Spirit and 
of power " This is right; this is enobling. 

For such use we commend these sermons to preachers and 
laymen, and we trust they will be widely read 

C. C. McCABE, 



SUBJECTS OF SERMONS. 



PAGE. 

I. THE SOUL'S CRY, 9 

II. SATAN VERSUS JOB, 26 

III. IDENTIFICATION, - - - 41 

IV. THE GIFT OF POWER, - 59 
V OPPORTUNITIES, 78 

VI. THE MATCHLESS VISITOR, - 97 

VII. MOSES' CHOICE, - - - 113 

VIII. THE GREAT DECISION, - - 129 

IX. FAITH IN GOD, - - - 150 

X. THE GLORIOUS GOSPEL, - - 169 

XI. PAUL'S CONVERSION, - - 184 

XII. THE CHRISTIAN'S SECURITY, - 200 

XIII. DEBTS AND HOW TO PAY THEM, - 215 

XIV. SANCTIFICATION, - 231 
XV. A JOYFUL DEDICATION, - - 249 

(8) 



THE SOUL'S CRY. 



Text: No Man Cared for My Soul. Psa. CXLII:4, 



This is one of the most pathetic plaints that ever 
issued from a human soul. It sounds like a wail 
from the shades of everlasting despair. It fairly 
drips with the oozings of the night shade, the 
cedar and the cypress. u No man careth for my 
soul." What a theme would that have been for 
Dante in his weird and wild wanderings in the 
realm of shadows! Or for Homer, in some Odys- 
sean character discovered in the nether world! Or 
for some lost spirit in the tragedies of the Greek 
and Roman dramatists! u No man careth for my 
soul. 55 An Iliad of woes is gathered up into a sin- 
gle sentence, It sounds as though there was not 
simply an eclipse of the orbs of light, but that all 
the orbs were blotted out forever. Hope is not 
deferred, but dead and buried with no angel at 
the door of the sepulchre to tell of a coming resur- 
rection. 

It was uttered in the subterranean depths of the 
cave Adullam, a many-chambered under-world, 
rich in historic interest. It is the cry of a prophet, 
priest and king, a poet, harpist, and warrior, but 



10 



THE SOUL'S CRY. 



now an outcast, an exile, a refugee with a price 
upon his head, and that head to all human appear- 
ance, likely to be delivered at no distant date. 
Wandering through the wild mountains and dark 
ravines, hunted, hounded, cursed by the king and 
his troopers, trembling at the unusual cry of a 
beast or rustling of a leaf, David, in the bitterness 
of his heart cried out: u No man careth for my 
soul." 

David was not unaccompanied. Men true and 
tried had rallied to his standard. So far as char- 
acter was concerned the flower of the kingdom 
swore by the son of Jesse. They were the men 
who were to be the Great King's officers of state, 
and to share largely in building up a glorious 
kingdom. True they were in the minority, they 
were illy equipped for a campaign against His 
Majesty's forces, they could not hope for victory 
without help from heaven. Still David was sur- 
rounded by quite an array of followers. 

Nevertheless he was lonely and despondent. 
There is no loneliness like that which cannot be 
broken, as there is no sorrow like that which defies 
consolation. Never have I felt such pangs of lone- 
liness in the depths of the untrodden forest as I 
have experienced among jostling thousands in a 
strange city. Proximity of bodies does not consti- 
tute company. Contact of minds, even mutually 
attractive minds, is not company. Nothing short 
of the free and full intercourse of kindred and har- 



THE SOUL'S CRY. 



11 



monious souls, panting with a common desire and 
not unequally yoked together so far as attainment 
is concerned, can constitute companionship. How 
could the unpoetic, unimaginative, unspiritual 
warriors furnish companionship for the great heart 
in which the 19th, 39th and 103d Psalms were 
minted, and whose emotional measure is but dimly 
apprehended by the heights and depths of the 51st 
Psalm? "No man careth for my soul." 

Standing here this morning I am impressed with 

THE PATHOS OF HUMAN LIFE. 

The great organ of the human heart not only has 
its diapason stop, its vox jubilante and magic 
flute, but also its tearful tremulo. And try we ever 
so hard to write the symphonies of every day life 
in major keys and play them with full organ, the 
bells and the vox jubilante, in spite of us, some 
days will be written in minor keys and the angel 
within us will use only the tearful tremulo. It was 
so with Jesus. Going up to Jerusalem from Jer- 
icho, just prior to His betrayal and death, He 
walked alone. Thrice He wept. Once He said: 
u My soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto 
death." And once he broke forth with the excla- 
mation: "My God! My God! Why hast Thou 
forsaken Me?" 

Our text is the cry of one who had seen happier 
days. What a home David had left behind in 
Bethlehem! Watching the flocks by day, and 
studying the stars by night; sweeping Celestial 



12 



THE SOUL'S CRT. 



melodies from the harp in the quiet watches and 
with the wrapt look of a seer, dreaming of days to 
come; loved and caressed by the inmates of the 
home whose darling he was; rambling the meadows 
without a fear, watching the frisky flocks and lis- 
tening to the liquid notes of feathered songsters; 
perhaps stealing away to spend an hour with one 
whose breath was like zephyrs from banks of 
spices, and whose voice was like the combination 
of all sweet and melodious sounds — ah me! How 
much he had left behind. Now the once happy 
boy, the idol, the darling, the caressed, is the ob- 
ject of immeasurable hatred and of heartless and 
relentless persecution. The happy home is ex- 
changed for a dark and cheerless cave. The even- 
ing song, sung by mother, brothers and sisters, 
for the murmurings of 400 disheartened and may- 
hap disaffected men; the companionship of pure, 
unselfish, spiritual childhood for the cool, calcula- 
ting, mercenary associations of manhood. What 
wonder he cried aloud: u No man careth for my 
soul." 

Oh the pathos of human life. The world is full 
of it. The cry of our text wells up in hearts upon 
every hand. Young men and women, who were 
the pride of father and the joy of mother, have 
gone out from the parental home, shaded by the 
elms and maples of New England, from the hills 
and forests of Maine, and the mountains of New 
Hampshire and Vermont, bent on seeing the world 



THE SOUL'S CRY. 



13 



and possessing its treasures. Tired of the restraints 
of home and church, once away they rushed madly 
into the gilded saloon, the glittering theatre and 
opera house. Sensuality seized upon them — appe- 
tite and passion — and bound them captive. They 
were thrilled, raptured, blinded ! Nothing could deter 
them in their mad flight downward. Wrecks over 
which they stumbled were only weaklings; drunken 
men and women simply fools; the hopelessly 
licentious merely lacking in grit and grip. Peril for 
them? Oh no! What a revelation dawned upon 
that young man's soul when he awoke in a strange 
room and found himself penniless and friendless; 
the watch given him as a token of remembrance 
by his father, gone to decorate the woman whose 
feet take hold on hell; yes, and his mother's pic- 
ture, picture of one as pure as the midnight star 
that hovered over Bethlehem, her picture, mothers 
picture, souvenir of her undying love, graces the 
chamber of shame in the harlot's house. 

Ah, hear him wail now: "My sun is forever set. 
Hope dies in blood. Despair opens wide to swallow 
me down. No one loves me; no one desires me; 
u no man careth for my soul." Were it not for the 
judgment, were not suicide but a rushing from 
Scylla to Chary bdis 1 would end all things earthly 
by my own hand. But my character would be as 
despicable, and my person as loathsome there, as 
here. Many express surprise at the many suicides; 
I am startled by their fewness. Thank God, we 



14 



THE SOUL'S CBT. 



know that heaven looks down in pity and com- 
passion upon all whose lives are set in minor keys 
and whose pathways lead through midnight shad- 
ows. "Seeing the multitudes He was moved with 
compassion on them because they fainted and 
were scattered abroad as sheep having no shep- 
herd." 

But I am still farther impressed with the fact 
that in this world the 

INNOCENT OFTEN SUFFER. 

Focus your thoughts upon David. He reached 
the throne, not by chicanery, fraud, or corruption, 
but by the selection of the King of Kings; he was 
the founder of a great dynasty; in his earlier 
years, at least, he was a man after God's own 
heart; he was destined to transmit his name even 
in the title of the Most High God; rich in char- 
acter, thought, and originality; whose songs 
thrilled the heart of Cromwell's Ironsides at Dun- 
bar and Marston Moor, and gave dying triumph 
to Polycarp, Bernard, Huss, Jerome, Locke, 
Luther, Wesley, and a great and innumerable 
throng — yet this hero-poet, this most distinguished 
of Christ's progenitors, so great and good the 
Son of the Most High was called his Son, the Son 
of David — this knight of the golden pen and the 
never-conquered sword, was hunted, hooted, and. 
hounded, driven from his ancestral home into 
deserts, caves and mountains, until out of the 
depths he cried: u No man careth for my soul." 



THE SOUL'S CRY. 



15 



To-day you will find innocence suffering in garret 
and cellar, alley-way and hovel; here they throng 
as pure as the dew that descends unsullied from 
heaven. Misunderstood, their words and actions 
misconstrued, hunted, hounded, slandered and 
vilified by monsters of deepest dye, without 
employment, food, raiment, shelter, friends or 
hope — if we could but hear the operations of heart 
and spirit a great miserere would be borne to us. 
And the theme of every solo, duet, trio, and 
quartette, of every chorus and orchestral score 
would be: u No man careth for my soul." 

We live in an age of haste. Millions in our 
great centres are crowded off the track by close 
competition and superior sagacity. They are the 
victims of jealousy, malice and hatred; of sickness, 
misfortune and misanthrophy; they are swallowed 
up by the maw of despair. And when the last star 
of hope sets, they suicide rather than attempt the 
ascent of the heights again, or the voyage across 
a sea already proven treacherous and merciless. 

Twelve years ago in the village of Ballardvale, 
Mass., resided an humble local Methodist preacher. 
Having an elegant home and a small fortune of 
$60,000 he wedded. It proved to be an unfortu- 
nate marriage. His fortune was speedily dissipated 
and his home was taken from him. Health and 
hope shattered, he walked the streets a penniless 
beggar. And yet he but represents a multitude 
who, through circumstances unforseen and una- 



16 



THE SOUL'S CRY. 



voidable, have awakened suddenly to find them 
selves like David of old, bereft of everything, beset 
with enemies and scoffers, and with David, unable 
to make but one truthful heartfelt speech, namely: 
u No man careth for my soul." 

But there is hope, comfort and joy for the down- 
cast. There is rescue for the ruined. There is 
restoration for the fallen. There is salvation for 
the lost. And it all comes from one source. 

JESUS CHRIST IS OUR ONLY SAVIOUR. 

David had strong supporters; he had swift 
horses; he had mighty chariots — but they were all 
in vain. U I looked on my right hand and beheld, 
but there was no man that would know me. Refuge 
failed me. ki No man cared for my soul/' u Aha!" 
cried all unto whom he turned for aid, 4 'you are in 
trouble are you? Get out of it now the best you 
can. Thou slayer of lions, thou chief in athletic 
sports thou champion of weaklings when they are 
in trouble; thou anointed by Samuel for kingship, 
thou idol of a princess, show now thy power and 
thy prowess by extricating yourself" Was not 
David well-nigh right when he said: "No man 
careth for my soul." 

But the pre-incarnate Christ was profoundly in- 
terested in him. "I cried unto the Lord. I said, 
Thou art my Refuge and my Portion in the land of 
the living. Many there be that say of my soul, 
there is no help for him in God. But thou, O Lord, 
art a shield for me, my glory and a lifter up of my 



THE SOUL'S CRY 



17 



head. I laid me down and slept; I awaked, for the 
Lord sustained me." 

So can we all testify. There is an antidote in 
the Gospel of Jesus for every ill. Jesus is the 
friend of the friendless, and the consolation of the 
hopeless. 

"What a Friend we have in Jesus, 
All our sins and griefs to bear; 
What a privilege to carry, 
Everything to God in prayer " 

His eye sweeps along the shores where mortals 
stand; His ear is open to every sigh; His hand 
ministers everywhere. 

'There is an eye that never sleeps: 
Beneath the shades of night 
There is an ear that never shuts 
When sinks the beams of light 
There is an arm that never tires 
When human strength gives way, 
There is a love that never fails 
When human loves decay. 
And there's a power which man can wield, 
That eye, that arm, that love to reach 
That listening ear to gain, 
That power is prayer, which soars on high, 
And feeds on bliss beyond the sky." 

Christ is our only help and hope. Nothing else 
can answer the longings of the human soul. 
The wisdom of the wisest and the longest life 
given to man cannot allay one pang of soul hun- 
ger or quench one fiery dart of thirst. 



18 



THE SOUL'S CRY. 



*' Jesus! the name to sinners dear, 
The name to sinners given; 
It scatters all their guilty fear; 
It turns their hell to heaven. 

"It makes the wounded spirit whole, 
And calms the troubled breast; 
'Tis manna to the hungry soul— 
And to the weary rest. 

"Dear name! the Rock on which I build, 
My shield and hiding-place; 
My never-failing treasure, filled, 
With boundless stores of grace " 

But I am impressed, moreover, with the fact that 

GOD SPEAKS TO DESPAIRING SOULS 

through the Church of His only-begotten Son. 
God would have the Church strain every nerve to 
make it impossible for any creature to truthfully 
say: "No man careth for my soul." The Church 
herself realizes her mission and is endeavoring to 
accomplish it. Last year $40,000,000 were laid 
down at the altar to pay Christian ministers to 
spread the joyful tidings in all directions. Last 
year 9,000,000 children were gathered into our 
Sunday Schools, indicative of the feeling of men 
that Christ is our only Saviour, the Bible his only 
word, and the Church His only visible representa- 
tive. Bishop John P. Newman well says: u On a 
beautiful day in the summer of 1883, the theatres 
and beer-gardens all open on Sunday, an actual 
count was made, and 8,000 men and women were 
found in garden and theatre — an awful fact. True, 



THE SOUL'S CRY. 



19 



but on the same day, in the same city 9*2,000 were 
found in Church. These facts go to show that 
men still believe in and pay for the spread of that 
system of benefits introduced and proclaimed by 
the Lord Jesus Christ." 

But certain ones say: Christian discipleship by 
no means exempts one from constant ills. Fol- 
lowers of Christ suffer poverty, stinging want, be- 
trayal and crucifixion. Was not Job buffeted by 
Satan? And Lazarus an outcast? And John the 
Baptist beheaded? And Christ Himself crucified? 
And, however much heaven may be interested are 
not Christians often driven to confess that no man 
careth for their souls? To all these interrogatories 
we answer, yes. But there is this difference: The 
■Sinner's night is bordered with despair/ The 
Christian's night is rimmed with fadeless rain- 
bows. The one goes downward ever into darkness 
impenetrable; the other grows brighter and 
brighter unto the perfect day. 

So Job says: "When He has tried me He will 
bring me out as gold." And David brushing 
off the dews of midnight from his auburn locks ex- 
claims: " Weeping may endure for a night, but 
joy cometh in the morning." And the great Paul 
buffeted, beaten, shipwrecked, but one remove 
from death straightens up and with seraphic coun- 
tenance declares that u our light afiiiction, which is 
hut j or a moment, worketh out for us a— far-more- 
exceeding and eternal — weight of GLOKY. " 



20 



THE SOUL'S CRY. 



But, why does God permit His saints to be so 
cruelly treated, as to wring from them the exclama- 
tion, u No man careth for my soul?" We answer: 
For the same reason that 

GOLD IS SMELTED THAT FLOWERS ARE CRUSHED. 

Goldis purified by fire; perfumes are the results 
of the heating and the crushing process. A min- 
ister of great intellectual strength was felt to be 
out of place in the home of affliction. He was so 
cold, distant and reserved. He was as cold as 
a polar midnight without moon or star. But for 
his great wisdom as a teacher, his eloquence, and 
his noble character his parishioners would have 
dismissed him. 

.But sickness came and took away a darling 
child. Then his idolized wife faded into a con- 
firmed invalid. Deep was his anguish of spirit. 
Strong man that he was he cried aloud for help. 
He could not refrain from weeping. Wrinkles 
suddenly appeared in his face and grey hairs rap- 
idly multiplied. From thenceforth he was a dif- 
ferent man. He was as gentle as a child. No 
mother's touch was more tender. He became 
noted as a son of consolation. Ah! he had passed 
through the fire. He had been bruised and beaten. 
He came forth pure gold and laden with the fra- 
grance of the Lily of the Valley, everywhere wel- 
come. We need the fire; we need the bruising. 

We wonder at our lack of power and persuasive- 
ness. It is because we are so barren of tenderness 



THE SOUL'S CRY. 



21 



and sympathy. It is because we have not been 
tossed on the sea, or groaned in the garden, or 
wept at the silent tomb. We are not compassion 
ate, long-suffering, quick to forgive, eager to help. 
Our very countenances are often sour and forebod- 
ing, our touch rough and unfeeling, our voices 
harsh and grating. 

Oh! the omnipotence of gentleness and love. A 
kind hearted gentleman becoming interested in a 
fallen and outcast man whom the world had cast 
off as being beyond redemption resolved to save 
him if possible. So one day he invited him to dine 
with him at his home. At first he doggedly d& 
clined to go, but at length yielded. Entering a 
palatial residence the benefactor met, first of all, 
a beautiful and elegantly attired little daughter. 
"Ah, Emma," he said, stroking her hair, u we 
have company to-day for dinner." Then turning to 
the blushing and trembling man he simply said: 
u Emma, this is your Papa's friend." She put her 
arms about his neck and kissed him while the 
poor fellow sobbed aloud. ' 'Ah, sir," he said, "I 
beg your pardon. But that is the first kiss I have 
had for years. My mother dying kissed me; I 
never expected to be loved or kissed again." His 
heart was profoundly moved, and that was the 
beginning of his thorough reformation and subse- 
quent usefulness. Saved by kindness! Stiffness, 
rebukes, or even inattention would have but con- 
firmed him in his downward course. 



22 



THE SOUL'S CRY. 



In the city of New Orleans, during one of the 
recent epidemics apoor family from the North, fell 
a prey to its ravages. Such was the deadliness of 
the disease, and its contagious character, that the 
burial immediately followed the decease. Member 
after member of this family was swept away until 
but one little baby boy remained. But the mother 
dying had kissed him and told him that Jesus would 
care for him. Night came on and the child was 
missing. Searching in every direction, at last, the 
cemetery was visited, and sure enough there he 
was. Approaching him he held out both little 
hands and said: "Can you tell me where Jesus is? 
He promised my Mamma to come and get me and 
take care of me." "Yes, my child," he replied "I 
am come for you." "Are you the dear good Mas- 
ter?" "Yes," was the answer, "or one whom He 
has sent." "Well," said the little wanderer, "you 
have been a long time coming." Dear friends, a 
great, weary, struggling world, withwailings upon 
its lips says: "O you followers of the Master. Ye 
are a long time coming." 

You have read of the Shetland Islanders who 
make their living largely by gathering the eggs of 
birds of prey and catching their young. But in 
order to do this they have to fasten ropes at the 
top of overhanging crags and descending, over an 
almost bottomless gulf by vibratory motions swing 
themselves into the fissures, taking care to fasten 
the lower end of the rope. One day one of these 



THE SOUL'S CRY. 



23 



fellows having made his descent successfully let 
go his rope. Horror-stricken, he saw it oscillating 
each time getting farther and farther away. One 
moment more and he would be lost: heights im- 
passable above him, billows angry below and 
escape, in any direction, hopeless. 

Such is the condition of thousands in this city, 
in every city, in every community. A life of mis- 
fortune or shame behind them, poverty and mis- 
ery on either hand, eternal death ahead, and the 
Church and the Church's Christ getting farther 
and farther away. O for a breaking up of this in- 
difference, an outgushing tide of sympathetic love 
from the heart of the Church militant, to reach 
these starving, perishing multitudes who have 
reason to cry: "No man careth tor my soul." O! 
That every Church might be like on§ of the Liver- 
pool churches. In their meetings some time ago 
fifty of the leading members seated themselves at 
every service throughout the audience watching 
for anxious faces and listening for secret-revealing 
sighs. And it was a rare thing for them to bring 
in less than fifty seekers at the close of the sermon, 
and often many more than that. This ought to be 
the universal rule, and not a world-wide excep- 
tion. Nothing short of this will please God! 
Nothing short of this will rescue the world! Noth- 
ing short of this will clear our garments and save 
our own souls. 



24 



THE SOUL ? S CRY. 



A RESCUE ON THE NIAGARA RIYER. 

Some years ago a party of five gentlemen 
crossed the Niagara River in a small boat, many 
miles above the Falls. They were young and light- 
hearted. They had a merry passage, spent a happy 
hour on the Canadian side, and then re-embarked 
for their return. All went well until they neared 
the center of the stream, when they encountered 
a fierce gale. The boat shot forward. The mad 
current, joined with the wild waves in hurrying it 
downward in the direction of the Rapids. The 
men plied their oars. They were strong and stal- 
wart, but as helpless as infants. 

The landing they aimed for was left far behind 
them. They looked with speechless lips into each 
other's white faces. They knew that they were 
going down the current. The oarsmen strained 
every muscle/ If they could only breast the stream 
for awhile, relief might come. One of the fragile 
oars snapped. One more hold was gone. JSTot a 
word was spoken. Death and eternity stared them 
in the face. Upon one solitary oar and one single 
oarsman, hung five precious lives. Surely they were 
going down with the dark current. 

Two of the five were Christians, and they after- 
ward gave the joyful assurance that, when the first 
great terror was over, they fell back upon hope 
and faith, and that in them the near prospect 
of death was swallowed up in victory. 

Suddenly, when the hands of the oarsman were 



THE SOUL'S CRY. 



25 



bleeding and torn, when the signal of distress had 
long fluttered in vain, and the agitation and alarm 
had sown the seeds of death in one fragile frame, 
a little boat was seen coming cautiously toward 
them. It turned back. It durst not venture too 
close. Not a word from the five. They seemed 
very near God and eternity. 

Another and stouter craft put off, rapidly at 
first, then very slowly. It must not come within 
the power of the irresistible current. One moment 
it paused. No nearer. A rope was uncoiled. 

'Seize the E.ope, ? shouted the boat's crew. The 
stout craft shot rapidly off, and the rescued boat 
was drawn from the hurrying current. 

Sinner, you, too, are drifting, swiftly and surely, 
down a subtle current. A noble craft comes to 
your rescue. A rope is flung out to you. It is 
salvation through Christ. Seize that rope, and 
escape the destruction which awaits you. Jesus 
waits to save. It is high time to awake. It is high 
time to flee for thy life. Will you do it now? All 
the invitations of the Bible are offered now. Its 
offer of pardon and peace and holiness and heaven 
is made now. Gratitude demands that you decide 
now. Eternity, with all its solemnities, cries now. 
' 'Behold, now is the day of salvation." 



SATAN VERSUS JOB. 



Text: Then Satan answered the Lord and said: 
.Doth Job fear God- for naught? Hast Thou not 
made an hedge about him, and about his house and 
about all that he hath on every side? Thou hast 
blessed the work of his hands and his substance is 
increased in the land. But ^> u ^ forth Thine hand 
noio and touch all that he hath and he will curse 
thee to Thy face. Job I: 9-11. 



These are the words of the Devil. We do not, 
as a rule, go to the Devil for texts. Indeed, angels 
"ever bright and fair" are not resorted 
to for texts, though we sometimes take 
one of their rapturous exclamations or messages 
from the Most High as a theme. "Though all 
Scripture is given by inspiration and is profitable," 
we do not believe all Scripture is equally inspired 
and profitable. We do not believe our text is in- 
spired at all, because we do not believe in the in- 
spiration of the Devil. Though Paul declares that 
all Scripture is given by inspiration of God he 
does not say that all Scripture is inspired of God. 
All Scripture is given, that is, selected, culled out, 
separated from the great mass of material. We have 
only a tithe of what Jesus said, but a synopsis of 



SATAN VERSUS JOB. 



Paul's utterances, the briefest resume of the pro- 
ductions of Old and New Testament worthies. We 
have but the germinal ideas, the gist, so to speak, 
of the word-battles, field notes without comment 
or organic unity. Selection had to be made. Re- 
jection was equally essential. Things of but local 
or transient interest, though from the lips of 
Jesus, had to be cast aside. Words, freighted with 
wisdom, advice or warning, though from the lips 
of devils, must be saved and recorded. And this 
superintendency was the work of the Holy Spirit. 
All Scripture is given by inspiration; but, in the 
sense of being the echo of God through created 
intelligences, all Scripture is not inspired. In- 
spiration selected, arranged, and sealed with the 
stamp of Divine authority all things essential to 
our well-being and the glory of God. Because the 
Holy Spirit saw these words of Satan could be 
used in helping men heavenward, in opening their 
eyes to the real character of his Demonic Majesty, 
He had them preserved and handed down to us. 
Sometimes it is necessary to meet the enemy on 
his own ground and with his own weapons. Here 
we have the high authority of the Holy Spirit for 
refuting the Devil out of his own mouth. Our text 
is the language of Satan. 

Job was a unique character. A man of wealth, 
of social prominence and influence, a leader of the 
people and widely known and honored; he was an 
illustration of every virtue in the full bloom of a 



28 



SATAN VERSUS JOB. 



glorious summer. Temporality and Spirituality 
walked beside him on either hand, and each 
crowned him with her richest laurels. He is a 
standing proof that the greatest wealth and the 
loftiest honor is entirely consonant with the deep- 
est and most fervent piety. If you would know a 
man, really and truly know him, ask his family. 
Job's family arise and testify in his behalf. He 
was perfect and upright, feared God and eschewed 
evil. He was above reproach. No shadow or 
suspicion fell across the fair page of his inner life 
and outward form and action. 

But this spotless righteousness was an eye-sore 
to Satan. He hated Job only second to God. His 
character was only less repulsive to him than 
the character of Jehovah. He burned to find a 
vulnerable place in the armor of this man of God. 
He raved within to rend Job in the sight of all 
men. He was frantic to destroy him; and not only 
him but all that was near and dear to him. With 
fiendish malignity he would stop short of nothing, 
however heartless and unscrupulous, that would 
even be likely to annihilate the rich inheritance, 
the beautiful family, the venerable man, and the 
helpful and inspiring influence. 

And yet Satan is good for something in the 
present state of our being, though he deserves no 
credit for it. Satan is a never failing critic and 
enemy. He never flatters. He never recognizes 
merit. He has no faith in virtue and honor. He 



SATAN VERSUS JOB. 



20 



never accepts the compliments bestowed upon others 
though the bestower is entirely competent and 
trustworthy. In this respect perhaps Satan's char- 
acter and influence, though dripping with the ichor 
of hell is, not an unmixed evil. Friends may hide our 
vices and flatter our virtues until we become in- 
flated with pride, and an object of loathing to the 
community. They may pamper us until we may 
imagine that we are essential to every good and 
noble work, when in reality our decease would no 
more be felt among men than an invisible eclipse 
on the opposite side of the earth. Next to a real 
friend, is an outspoken enemy. And as a bitter, 
unscrupulous, relentless enemy Satan is not only 
without a rival, but also without a peer. Curses 
upon humanity's tireless foe! But to our text, and 

I 

consider satan's admissions. 
Satan's attention had been called to the highest 
type of human life. u There is none like him in 
the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that 
feareth God and escheweth evils. Satan must here 
enter the confessional. He could bring no charge 
against Job. But Satan's admission settles the 
possibility of perfect rectitude, even in the flesh, 
before God. Men to-day deny the doctrine of 
Christian perfection; they scoff at the idea of man 
living in unwavering integrity before his Maker; 
they resort to scurrility in stigmatizing those who 
believe they have attained to that grace, never- 



30 



SATAN VERSUS JOB. 



theless Job exemplifies it, God declared it, and 
Satan had to confess it. 

Hast thou considered Job. My servant, a pat- 
tern of inflexible rectitude, even a perfect man? 
Behold in him an Israelite without guile. Con- 
sider every detail of .his life, descend to the most 
minute particular, search out the smallest secret 
thing, and everywhere and in everything you will 
find him without fault, blemish or wrinkle. 

Happy was the age that could produce such a 
man. Fortunate were his neighbors to have such 
an example of flawless and spotless character ever 
before their eyes. Many men are beautiful, if but 
casually met and known. u Distance lends en 
chantment.'' In prominent and conspicuous affairs 
they are the soul of honor. On the distant and 
dazzling height they are loudly lauded. But in 
the private walks of life, on closer inspection, we 
are shocked at the marred and shattered parts. 
Take care of the pennies and the dollars will take 
care of themselves. And only he who attends to 
the smallest details in every-day life can have a 
Jobine character. God does not consider it be- 
neath His dignity to give attention to apparent 
trifles. He marks the sparrow's fall, hears the 
raven's cry and numbers the ever-decreasing and 
increasing hairs of our heads. 

One day a distinguished gentleman called on 
Michael Angelo, who was completing, slowly, a 
great statue. Some weeks later the gentleman 



SATAN VERSUS JOB. 



31 



called again, and finding the great sculptor still 
laboriously engaged upon the same master-piece, 
exclaimed: "What! have you been idle since I 
was here?-' "By no means," replied the great 
master. U I have retouched this part and polished 
that; I have softened this feature and brought out 
this muscle; I have given more expression to this 
lip, and more energy to this limb." "Ah! But 
these are the merest trifles," exclaimed the caller, 
"the merest trifles." "True." replied Angelo, 
"but remember that trifles make perfection, and 
that perfection is no trifle. " 

Be you like the great Italian in attention to 
trifles in chiselling the statue of your character. 
The single fly corrupts the ointment. The little 
foxes spoil the vine. The secret thought and care- 
less word undermine the Alpine character. Any 
lubber can knock off the rough exterior of the 
marble slab; but it takes the touch of a master 
and the patience of a Christ to achieve perfection. 
Acquire the skill and possess the patience to put 
the finishing touches to your character. Remem- 
ber that trifles make perfection, and perfection 
is no trifle. And that perfection is attainable, even 
in this life, Satan himself confesses. 

But Satan goes farther. He confesses the provi- 
dential care of God for His children. "Of course 
Job is a good man," says Satan, "for it is to his 
interest to be. You carry him on your arm; you 
bear him on your bosom; you shelter him with 



32 



SATAX VERSUS JOB. 



your wing; you shield him from the blast; you 
smile him into perpetual health and peace; you 
kiss him into unexampled prosperity, Of course 
he is a perfect man. You so hedge him in with 
merciful and gracious providences he has every 
occasion and reason to be good." 

This is a glorious confession. God hedges his 
servants in. He promotes their temporal as well 
as their spiritual prosperity. He delights in 
crowning them in this world as well as in the 
world to come. One reason why every child of 
God is not as rich as Job. is we are unable to bear 
so much prosperity. Satan says: "Hast thou not 
hedged him about and put a hedge about his 
house, and about all that he hath on every side. 
I cannot get to him." Thus God hedges in his 
children, Satan being the witness. When God 
first called "Israel to go over into Canaan, He 
promised them rest and security. Elisha saw and 
experienced the fulfillment of the prophecy on the 
summit of Dothan. Gazing upon the heavenly 
army he exclaims: "They that be with us are more 
than they that be with them/' Isaiah beheld, with 
prophetic eye, the long dreamed of Deliverer, 
coming from Edom, "with dyed garments from 
Bozrah,^ mighty to save, David breaks forth. 
u He shall surely deliver thee from the snare of the 
fowler and from the noisome pestilence. He shall 
cover thee with His feathers, and under His wings 
shalt thou trust. His truth shall be thy shield and 



SATAN VERSUS JOB. 



33 



buckler. Thou shall not be afraid for the terror 
by night, nor for the arrow that flieth by day. 
Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness, 
nor the destruction that wasteth at noonday. A 
thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at 
thy right hand, but it shall not come nigh thee. 
Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see 
the reward of the wicked. Because thou hast 
made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the Most 
High, thy habitation, there shall no evil befall 
thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwel- 
ling." 

Years ago when Lord Craven was residing in 
London, a frightful plague came and swept away 
hundreds of people in every walk of life. His 
lordship resolved to retire to the country, and if 
possible escape the dreadful malady. Accordingly 
he had everything put in readiness, and then 
ordered his coach-and-six. But as he was impa- 
tiently pacing the hall, waiting for the family, and 
with real terror anxious to be away, he overheard 
his negro servant saying to another servant. "I 
suppose, by my lord's quitting London to avoid 
the plague that his God lives in the country, and 
not in town." This the negro said in the sim- 
plicity of his heart, as he believed in a plurality ot 
gods. The speech, however, made a profound 
impression upon his Lordship's mind. u My God," 
he mused, "lives everywhere and can preserve 
me in town as well as in the country. I will re- 



34 



SATAN VEBSUS JO* 3 



main where I am. God inspired my negro servant 
to preach me that sermon which I can never for- 
get. Lord, pardon my unbelief, and distrust of Thy 
providence which made me think of running from 
thy hand." He ordered the horses to be returned 
to the stable, and the baggage unloaded and 
stored. He sought to be useful, and many at the 
judgment will arise and call down blessings upon 
him. Nor did he catch the disease. How true the 
old saying: u The path of duty is the only path of 
safety." 

But the promise extends to all our wanderings. 
u He shall give His angels charge over thee to 
keep thee in all thy ways. They shall bear thee up 
in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a 
stone. * * * The steps of a good man are 
ordered by the Lord." Only he who is the object 
of God's protecting care, who has angelic escort, 
can travel in security. An Englishman having a 
large sum of money, started for Bristol, England. 
En route he was taken ill and had to abandon the 
trip. Years after, a criminal, about to be hung, 
said to him: u Do vou remember starting for Bris- 
tol once?" u Yes, perfectly well." "It is well you 
did not go, for I and several others who knew you 
had a large sum of money, had resolved to murder 
and rob you." 

But Satan had to confess still further that the 
service of God pays. No service pays like the 
service of God. Prosperous employer if he be right 



SATAN VERSUS JOB. 



35 



at heart and prosperous employe go hand in hand, 
Unprosperous employer, good or bad, and beg- 
garly employe go together, "Hitch your wagon 
to a star " Identify yourself with the prosperous 
and triumphant. God is the source of prosperity. 
Satan acknowledges it. He has more capital in- 
vested and gets a larger per centum than any 
other. He is able to reward liberally, and he 
holds that the laborer is worthy of his hire. He 
deceives no employer; He seeks no advantage; 
He is prompt to pay. He is always prompt and 
generous. He does nothing by halves. He re- 
joices in the full hand and the open heart. 

To be sure He is not foolish and prodigal. He 
expects His children to be industrious, fervent in 
spirit, diligent in business. He enjoins prudence 
and frugality. The fragments must be gathered 
up. Still he who serves God will possess more 
largely, other things being equal, than he who 
serves the world, the flesh and the Devil. Even 
the Devil had to confess: ''Thou hast blessed the 
work of his hands, and his substance is increased 
in the land." 

But again: II 

consider satan's mistake. 

"But put forth Thine hand now, and touch all 
that he hath and he will curse thee to thy face." 
Here the Devil and all his disciples ever blunder. 
Devoid of principle themselves, they are incapable 
of comprehending the motives of those who act 



36 



SATAN VERSUS JOB. 



from no consideration but principle. It pays to be 
good; therefore some people are good. It pays to 
be bad; hence some are bad. As to principle, 
doing a thing because it ought to be done, living 
up to righteousness though poverty, shame and 
death result — these are simply figments of the im- 
agination. So in regard to patriotism. Devoid 
of patriotism themselves they declare there is no 
such thing. Men go to war, they say, not for 
country-love, but for the pay, for the stripes and 
epaulettes, for honor and glory. If pay and pro- 
motion were on the other side, there they would 
be, too. So men pretend to be religious, not be- 
cause they are any better, or have cleaner hands 
and purer hearts than other people, not that they 
believe one word of their profession, or feel what 
they express, but because it pays. Were their 
worldly interests in antagonism to Christianity 
they, too, would be hostile. 

u Put forth thine hand and touch the spoil and 
this darling of yours, this devout soul of Thine 
that fawns upon thee, this man of sanctimonious 
air who caters to your proffers will show his real 
self. He will curse Thee to Thy face. He will 
trample thy dearest wishes under foot. He will 
roar with mocking laughter when you speak of the 
sweet constraints of love, the delights of faith, and 
the reward beyond. He obeys Thee because it 
pays to. It is a matter of business with him. At 
heart he is as black a devil as I am. But put forth 



SATAN VERSUS JOB. 



37 



Thine hand and touch all that he hath and he will 
curse Thee to Thy face. " 

This was too grave a charge to pass unnoticed. 
God resolved to put Job to the test. Not that he 
doubted Job's integrity; not for the Devil's bene- 
fit, but as an object-lesson to all, in coming cen- 
turies, against whom such charges might be 
brought, and to confound all future devils and 
their spawns who would dare bring such charges 
against God's elect. All that Job hath is thine, 
Satan, I deliver him and all that he hath into thy 
hands. I withdraw the angels; I withhold my 
fostering hand; I sweep away the hedges of pros- 
perity and protection. Do thy worst. Test him 
to the utmost. Drag him down to the lowest deep. 
Then if he come forth true to me, pure and un- 
sullied as burnished gold, for shame keep silence 
forever, and return to your native doom. 

Then Satan went forth on his work of devasta- 
tion and death. Oh Job, I pity thee? Dark are 
the clouds that overshadow thee, and pitiless thy 
tormentor. Satan rode between forks of lightning. 
His breath was a consuming flame. His weapons 
were thunderbolts. His music, the lamentations 
of those smitten and destroyed. He smites once, 
and Job loses his herds; he smites twice, and flames 
consume the residue of his possessions; thrice he 
smites, and his children close their eyes forever in 
dreamless slumber. Still Job is unshaken. True, 
he is deluged with tears. True, he is storm-swept 



38 



SATAN VERSUS JOB. 



with agonizing emotion. True, he was suffering 
unnamable tortures, still his rectitude was un- 
shaken. Out from the depths of bottomless an- 
guish he cries: iv The Lord gave, and the Lord 
hath taken away; blessed be the name of the 
Lord/' 

Satan was non-plussed, and wild with unbridled 
rage. But one more resort remained. He would 
that there were a thousand more untried tortures. 
For with every new exhibition of fidelity to God 
Satan's wrath was intensified. The Devil hates the 
righteous; and the more righteous a man is the 
more malignant and unscrupulous the Devil be- 
comes. "Aha," says Satan, "I can at least do 
one thing more. His health remains intact. All 
that a man hath will he give for his life. Put forth 
thine hand and touch his bone, his flesh and he 
will curse Thee to Thy face. And Satan is given 
this additional power. Job is mercilessly afflicted 
He becomes putrid, foul and offensive. Then 
stupid consolers come to add to his wretchedness. 
And finally to cap the climax, she whom he had so 
fondly loved, so passionately wooed, so tenderly 
cherished, so lavishly provided for, but who had 
proven false in this hour of need, came and calmly 
bade him curse God and die. Oh Job, only an 
omnipotent and eternal God is able to recompense 
thee for all thou didst suffer in innocence. Only 
eternity will afford sufficient time. 

But hark! Out from the filthy robe and lair, out 



SATAN VERSUS JOB. 



39 



from the matted hair and crackling lips comes the 
sublimest saying ever uttered: "Though He slay 
me, yet will I trust in Him." Here were no spoils, 
no selfish reward, no worldly advancement or 
honor. Oh no! Principle triumphs and Faith 
exclaims: "He, whose I am and Whom I serve, 
knoweth the way I take; and when He has tried 
me He will bring me forth as gold." 

How the halls of heaven must have rung with 
deafening applause in that hour! How hell must 
have fairly writhed and crawled with hisses and 
wrathful groans! What an ovation must have 
been given to Job's children as they 
entered heaven in honor of their kingly 
and well-nigh Deitific father! And what a 
pandemonium must Satan have heard long 
before he reached the abode of endless despair! 
Talk about the triumphs of ancient heroes! Visit 
the places famed in history and in song! But I 
declare to you that of all purely human conquerers 
Job stands in the front rank. And can only be 
equaled and surpassed by Him of Calvary. 

u My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into 
divers temptations." God has a purpose, high and 
holy, in allowing you to be buffeted by Satan. 
Out from the hottest fire comes the purest gold. 
The foot of the throne rests upon the top of the 
cross. Coronation follows crucifixion; Immortality 
chants upon the lip of death. 

Gaze upon stricken Job and rejoice in trium- 



40 



SATAN VERSUS JOB. 



pliant grace. Hear him cry: "Though he slay 
me, yet will I trust Him," and let faith be quick- 
ened and intensified. Look up to the greater than 
Job, dying upon the Cross, and as you hear Him 
say: "I freely die for thee," let your heart melt 
within you, and going forth into life's battles 
swear eternal fidelity to Him. 

"Rest comes at length though life be long and dreary. 
The day must dawn and darksome night be past; 
Ail journeys end in welcomes to the weary, 
And heaven, the heart's true home, will come at last. 

Angels sing on! Your faithful watches keeping; 

Sing us sweet fragments of the songs above; 
Till morning's joy shall end the night of weeping. 

And life's long shadows break in cloudless love/' 



IDENTIFICATION. 



Text. — John xviii: 26. "Did not 1 see Thee in 
the garden with him" 



Daniel Webster being asked what was the most 
fearful and appalling thought that ever occurred 
to him, instantly replied: u The thought of my 
private, personal, and individual responsibility 
to God." Well might the great statesman tremble 
when he remembered that he must appear alone 
before that Tribunal, whose Judge is so exact that 
He counts the hairs of our heads, and so minute 
in His judgments that our fleeting imaginations 
enter into the account. The central idea of Ed- 
ward Bellamy's Looking Backward is most fascin- 
ating. Were it possible, we would nationalize our 
responsibilities. There is a feeling of security in 
numbers. We feel safer when within calling dis- 
tance of some one. Men become strangely brave 
and strong when associated together. Monmouth 
weakened, only when bereft of his battalions. 
There is only one Winkelried among a hundred 
millions of men. There is a vast difference be- 
tween the heroism of combined Protestantism, and 
the heroism of the lion-like Luther, doing battle 



42 



IDENTIFICATION. 



single-handed with the greatest Dragon the world 
has ever produced. Nations, even, band together 
for mutual protection, politically and commer- 
cially. Even the mightiest powers in Europe feel 
the need of powerful alliances and coalitions. 
And Columbia, though the empress of nations, and 
the crown-jewel in the coronet of governments, did 
not deem it beneath her dignity to assemble dele- 
gates from all the Americas in her chief city, 
for exchange of knowledge and suggestion, 
hoping for a close union between all the powers of 
the Western World. And our national device 
declares that u in union there is strength." 

Recoiling thus from individual responsibility, 
and seeking coalitions and alliances, we naturally 
recoil from individual, personal judgment. The 
thought of standing, alone at the Judgment, terri- 
fies us. If we could be judged by communities, 
or states, or nations, if a general average would 
do, if we could be "lumped in," so to speak, we 
would not dread it so much; but to be taken singly 
and alone, our hearts fill with awful apprehensions 
and with nameless terrors. We can think, in a gen- 
eral way, of a future judgment with equanimity and 
unconcern. We can think of other people being 
arraigned without any trepidation of heart. But 
when a voice out of heaven speaks our individual 
name, and says: "This night Thy soul shall be 
required of thee" the whole scene changes, and we 
cover ourselves with sackcloth and ashes. 



IDENTIFICA TION. 



43 



A murder in Israel was a dreadful thing. The 
Israelites believed that blood shed by violence, 
cried out to heaven for vengeance. To even indi- 
rectly bring about the death of a man, was consid- 
ered a dreadful thing. But when the prophet 
Nathan said to David, who had brought about 
Uriah's death: "Thou art the man"! Thou art the 
murderer, David must have turned ashen pale. 
Little wonder he broke forth in the language of the 
fifty-first Psalm, one of the most pathetic wails that 
ever issued from a human heart. 

So to-day, could we realize that every imagina- 
tion and thought, every word and deed is being 
recorded on high, and that we must meet 
them in the silence and loneliness of an in- 
dividual judgment, and that escape is abso- 
lutely impossible, we should instantly fall upon 
our faces, and cry aloud: Have mercy ! Have 
mercy, O Lord ! Woe is me ! for I am undone; 
because I am a man of unclean lips;" or offer 
the prayer of David: "Create in me a clean heart, 
O God, and renew a right spirit within me," for 
out of the heart are "the issues of life." 

All the Old Testament writers, beginning with 
Moses and ending with Malachi, emphasized the 
individual aspect of responsibility and judgment. 
"Be sure your sin will find you out" haunts every 
page of Holy Writ; and by the light of this law 
we read the story of Peter's denial. "Did not I 



44 



IDENTIFICATION. 



see thee in the garden with Him? " And, first, 1 
am impressed with the fact that 

PETER WAS A MARKED MAN. 

Only a few hours before, he had declared his 
undying love for Jesus. "Though all men 
shall be offended because of Thee, yet will I never 
be offended," were the words that leaped to his 
lips at the suggestion of the Master that He would 
at last be abandoned by the multitude. In the 
presence of the mob he had drawn his sword and 
cut off the ear of the servant of the High Priest. 
But on being rebuked by the Master for brute 
violence, he fell out of the ranks and followed the 
throng in the distance. 

At the door of the palace he halts and mingles 
with the rabble, as curious as they to see what 
would be done with the wonderful Nazarene. Wet 
with midnight dew, and shivering in the sharp 
wind sweeping down from Lebanon's snow-crowned 
crest, Peter drew near the fire, kindled in the yard, 
and entered into conversation with the bystanders. 
His rude Galileean accent betrayed him, and some 
one said : ' 'Art thou not also one of His disciples ? " 
But poor, terrified, vacillating Peter answered, 
I am not." 

Then a soldier sprang forward and holding a torch 
close to the Apostle'sface said: i4 Did I not see thee 
in the garden with Him ? I was there. I was in 
company with a dear friend. We went together 
from the presence of the High Priest, whose ser- 
vant he was. Drawing near one of the Nazarene's 



IDENTIFICATION. 



45 



bigoted disciples, he was bereft of an ear. And 
you, sir, dealt the blow. Canst thou deny it? 
Did I not see thee in the garden with Him?" 
Peter was now driven into a close corner. His 
only resort was brag and bluster and blasphemy; 
and so now he began to emphasize his words with 
black and bitter oaths. But it was all to no pur- 
pose. Peter was a marked man. He had no 
"double." He could not counterfeit another. 
Escape from self was impossible. 

In other words, Peter had a clearly outlined 
personality. He could not swear like anybody 
else. His every word and intonation, his every 
deed and gesture, was characteristic of the man. 
Had he been elevated from his rude fishing smack to 
the Archbisopric of Jerusalem, had he been divested 
of the fisherman's garb and arrayed in full canonn 
cals, had his fishing nets and tackle been replaced 
with the crook and crozier of the Church, and had 
he, in the very chair, fabled to have been verily St. 
Peter's, kept silent and motionless, still he could 
not have concealed his identity. He would have 
to answer the query "Did not I see thee in the 
garden with Him % " in the affirmative. 

This is true of every man. Every man is marked. 
"Even a child is known by his doings." We can- 
not escape from ourselves, nor can we conceal our 
identity. 

In studying the character of Peter, we are apt 
to exaggerate his eccentricities. He was, indeed, 



46 



IDENTIFICATION. 



compared with John, an erratic and eccentric 
character. He would have attracted attention 
anywhere. I could have pointed him out in any 
throng. Yea, I shall know him in the resurrection. 
I think he will be all in a flurry about putting ofl 
the old and putting on of the new, and will be 
on fire to get ahead and lead the procession up to 
the gates of sapphire and the walls of jasper and 
gold. 

But did it ever occur to you that the peculiarities 
that would render Peter interesting to you, would 
at the same time render you equally interesting to 
Peter ? The most eccentric man has his antipode. 
And we are as eccentric to him, as he is to us. We 
say of people that they are eccentric, only 
because they are unlike us. But they are no more 
unlike us, than we are unlike them. Two posts, 
one white and the other black, driven into the 
ground, ten feet apart, are equally distant from 
each other. It would be folly to say that the white 
post is farther from the black post, than the black 
post is from the white. They must, of necessity, 
be equally distant from each other. So men are 
peculiar to us, because there is a mental, moral, 
or physical gap between us. But the gap is as 
wide from them to us, as it is from us to them. 
It was therefore nothing surprising for Artemas 
Ward to say that all men appeared to him as 
cranky and curious, as he could possibly appear to 
them. The only difference is : There never was 



IDENTIFICATION. 



47 



but one Artemas Ward, while the world is full of 
ordinary mortals. 

So there never has been but one Peter. There 
probably will never be another. Peter was a 
marked man. All peoples and all centuries are 
familiar with his features. But I am also impressed 
with the fact that 

ESCAPE FROM SELF IS IMPOSSIBLE. 

Jonah tried it, but failed. The winds knew him, 
and buffeted his ship. The waves knew him, and 
opened their mouths to swallow him, ship and all. 
The ship's crew at last recognized him, and horror- 
stricken, flung him overboard. The leviathan knew 
him, and was on hand, as Jehovah's special agent, 
to administer to him an unparalleled chastisement. 
Escape was impossible. 

King David tried it, but failed. Once he simu- 
lated insanity to hoodwink his foes. Again he 
tried to throw off the cloak of guilt for Uriah's 
murder. With a breaking heart and a bleeding 
conscience, he assumed jollity and mirth. He would 
flee from his licentious, adulterous, murderous, 
hypocritical self. But escape was impossible. At 
every turn, by day or night alike, some Nathan 
was rending his soul by saying: "Thou art the 
man ! " O thou wicked seducer of Bathsheba, 
thou heartless robber and muderer of her husband 
Uriah, thou conscienceless hypocrite, masquerading 
in the spotless livery of priest and king, and yet a 
very devil at heart — how canst thou escape the 



48 



IDENTIFICATION. 



death of torture here you so richly deserve, and the 
hell that yawns even now to swallow you up? No 
wonder he wrote penitential psalms! It is a won- 
der he refrained from taking his own life. He 
could not escape his sins. He could not divest 
himself of self. 

Come to our own country. Less than three 
decades ago, our American Congress tried to put a 
man with 7000 associates through their sieve, but 
he caught every time. The sieve of citizenship 
and enfranchisement held him in the chaff and 
refuse. Jefferson Davis! His position made him 
the arch-conspirator; the venom-filled head of the 
serpent of secession, the concentrated virus of all 
the poison-breeding slavery champions and dis : 
unionists, from Jamestown down. Gordon and 
Lee, and Beauregard and all the rest, could pass 
through, but the chief never. Just before he died, 
he tried to relieve himself of some of the odium. 
Like Peter, he begun to deny. But it was useless. 
Escape was impossible. All soldiers who suffered 
most, point their flaming fingers at him, and with 
lips curled with scorn, exclaim: Did we not see 
you with our own eyes, and suffer because of thee? 
Oh, chief of traitors, avaunt, avaunt! 

Escape from self is impossible. Thousands — 
multiplied thousands — fail here. They get into 
trouble, and imagine they can settle it by going 
away, by becoming identified with some other 
Church, community, or country. Foolishness. 



IDENTIFICATION. 



49 



Take the wings of the morning and fly to the utter- 
most parts of the earth, and there will be sure to 
appear somebody to say: "Did I not see you with 
Him in the garden?" "How did you settle that 
little matter at home? " There is no saying truer 
than the one that declares that: u Thy sins will find 
thee out." 

But I am still further impressed that 

men's deeds are accurate photographs of 
their minds and hearts. 

A mean-minded man cannot live a grand life. 
There may be occasional flashes of magnanimity, 
as when saloon-keepers pose as philanthropists and 
humanitarians; but all such performances are to be 
classed with those deeds of Satan who, to accom- 
plish some diabolical purpose, masquerades as an 
angel of light. Even if the mean man attempts 
a good deed, it is on a small scale, and is malodor 
ous with u a lively sense of favors" to be received 
in return. Some years ago a chieftan, desiring to 
give up the conflict as compelled to; rather, instead 
of stepping out with his misguided and ill-starred 
soldiers, like a noble-spirited man overtaken in an 
error and vanquished, slunk away and tried to 
escape in female apparel, 

The reverse is equally true. It is impossible 
for a large-hearted man, though a sinner, to do a 
small thing. Though he be crimson-stained and 
scarlet-dyed, his magnanimity and colossal spirit 
will plead for him like angels trumpet-tongued. 



50 



IDENTIFICATION. 



Alexander and Caesar, and Bonaparte are exam- 
ples. They scorned duplicity, double-facedness,and 
hypocrisy. They hated sham and mask and make- 
believe. 

And how often have you found in wicked worldly 
hearts a frankness and nobility that compelled your 
admiration, as the sterling qualities of the rich 
young man awakened the admiration of Jesus! 
How often have we found such large-hearted 
catholic-spirited souls more enjoyable than some 
professed Christians who are always full of little, 
narrow, petty jealousies and fault-findings. Such 
men always remind me of that saying of Jesus: 
"Other sheep I have which are not of this fold." 

But did it ever occur to you that those noble 
outsiders are the children of Christian parents, or 
the product of a Christian civilization? And their 
merit is the fruit of Christianity, rather than of 
unbelief with its creed of negation. What have 
we to-day of value, that is not the product, directly 
or indirectly, of Christianity? 

But I advance a step farther, and declare that 

DEEDS MARK THE MAN AS FULLY AS MAN MARKS 
THE DEEDS. 

We have been trying to show that the size of 
the mould decides the size of the coin. In other 
words, that a mean man cannot live a noble life; 
that you cannot cast a large coin in a small mould. 
But not only does Caesar's coin bear Caesar's im- 
print, but Caesar himself is affected by his own coin. 



IDENTIFICATION. 



51 



We are shocked by the fall of some noted man. 
His outburst of brutality almost paralyzes us, and 
we exclaim: u How sudden, how awful this is." 
By no means. That tragedy had its conception a 
quarter or a half century ago. The dishonest, or 
licentious, or murderous thought, entered the mind 
away back on the hillside in the meadow. 
It was welcomed. It grew in size and strength. 
At last it gained the mastery. Alas! young 
men, say not, u It is only a thought/' 
You are printing on the tablets of your souls, 
thoughts which, unless arrested, will issue at last 
in deeds of damnation. You cannot prevent the 
wicked thought from knocking at your door and 
craving hospitality? But you can prevent their re- 
ception and entertainment. As the old saying 
runs: u You cannot prevent birds from flying 
over your head, but you can prevent them from 
building nests in your hair." And the difference 
between a Christian and a sinner is: One enter- 
tains the sinful thought, while the other closes the 
door instantly, and turns every key and bolt. 

Years ago a man in the mountains was startled 
by the scream of an eagle as she took her flight 
upward. Higher and swifter she flew, until, all of 
a sudden, there was a slight pause, a careening 
left and right, and then a frightful descent from 
her dazzling height, falling with a dull and heavy 
thud. What was the trouble? A serpent had fas- 
tened upon her. Maddened by the sting, she flew 



52 



IDENTIFICATION. 



upward with furious speed. But the poison 
blinded her, and then sank like a dagger into her 
heart. Every evil thought is a serpent. And I 
speak with all solemnity when I declare, that he 
who fills his bosom with vipers and adders, is 
w T iser than the man who harbors an unclean 
thought. And while both alike are guilty of suicide, 
the one wrecks only a dying body, while the 
other damns an immortal spirit 
But again: We may learn that 

DEEDS OFTTIMES SPEAK IN THUNDER TONES. 

When Saul came back from his southern cam- 
paign he was visited by the prophet Samuel. God 
had commanded King Saul to put everything m 
the enemy's country to the sword. But Saul was 
disobedient. Pride and avarice mastered him. 
Capturing the hostile King, he would bring him 
back as a trophy of his campaign, and seizing vast 
droves of cattle and sheep and other wealth, be 
would save them, too, to enrich himself. Samuel 
said: "Saul, why have you been disobedient to 
(Srod?" Saul replied: U I have not been." But 
just then the lowing and bleating herds declared 
his falsehood, and his countenance fell. The King 
was condemned by bleating herds. Alas, how 
shall we escape when a greater than the bleating 
herds, or even God's prophet, appears against us. 
Guilt rings its gong in the halls of consciousness 
until everything is dumb, and all our wicked deeds 
testify against us. 



IDENTIFICATION. 



53 



A rich jewel merchant, traveling in a foreign 
land with one servant and a son, suddenly died. 
The servant instantly seized the money and jewels, 
and declared himself to be the son. In vain did 
the son try to establish his identity. At last the 
matter was brought into court, when the Oriental 
judge, with that cunning for which they are so 
famous, ordered both to place their heads through 
a ceiling, that the guilty might be smitten with a 
sword, the judge assuming to know the guilty 
one. The servant now grew pale, and trembling, 
refused to obey the command. The judge then 
exclaimed: u Thou art the man," and the servant 
confessed his crime. 

But unlike Saul and the servant of the jewel- 
merchant, Peter repented, and was saved; though 
it should never be forgotten that there is such a 
thing as sinning against light until the ability to 
repent is squandered. Continual sinning tends to 
moral and spiritual apoplexy ^ the issue of which 
is death. But Peter's sin was rendered more 
heinous in that he had been the bosom companion 
of Jesus for three years. To what sermons and 
prayers had he listened! What visions had his 
eyes beheld! What sweet intercourse with the 
Master at twilight by the murmuring sea, or at 
noontide amid the glories of the mountain. And 
yet he denied, with bitter curses, his Lord and 
Master. It was an awful thing for Peter to do, because 
of his lofty privileges and his high profession. 



54 



IDENTIFICATION. 



So to-day, the followers of Christ are the center 
of observation. Even a wicked world demands of 
us a purer manhood, and a higher order of intelli- 
gence, because we have been to Jesus, and bear 
His sacred and hallowed name. And however 
paradoxical it may sound, the sinner glories in the 
purity of the church, and mourns when she aposta- 
tises. The church and the church-member must 
pay one hundred cents on the dollar, though the 
whole world bankrupts and makes assignment. 
Ministers must not only be pure and upright, 
but they must be above suspicion. 

The world is getting its eyes open to the glories 
of Christianity and the benefits of the Church. 
When any great work lies heavily upon the heart 
of the Church, whether in our own or pagan lands, 
the outside world hastens to our altars with their 
offerings. The world is coming to look upon every 
man converted to God as a tree planted by the 
rivers of water; an olive tree laden with fruit and 
delighting the eye; a cedar of Lebanon, not only 
useful, but beautiful and engaging. 

But not only is Christianity prized here, but we 
believe that all the galaxies of worlds are blending 
in mute admiration toward our cross and our 
Calvary. Oh beloved, if we but knew how 
all the constellations glory in the redemption of 
the Son of God, we would rush forth and declare 
to all the shining and celestial hosts: U I am a 
Christian! I am a son of God!'' 



IDENTIFICATION. 



55 



But I hasten to my conclusion. How impres- 
sive. 

The Quickness of Peter's Apostasy. At mid- 
night he was a saint, with holy vows welling up in 
his heart; before daybreak he was a devil, with 
hot curses writhing on his lips. Surrender to 
Satan, and we fall from heaven to hell in an in- 
stant. U I beheld Satan as lightning falling from 
heaven." There is but a step between thee and 
death. 

How impressive, too, 

The Time of Peter's Apostasy. He was fresh 
from Gethsemane. The Master had just poured 
out those wonderful prayers. Sweat of blood had 
beaded His brow. . Angels had hovered over the 
inexpressibly tender and agonizing scene. One 
had broken forth from the shining ranks to cheer 
and bind up His wavering and breaking heart. 
The very air was vibrant with celestial presences, 
and tremulous with holy influences. For three 
hours Gethsemane was thrust up into heaven. The 
bosom of the world bore up God's agonizing Son 
into the very presence of the God-head. And from 
this place Peter went forth to cover himself with 
the deepest guilt and shame. Beloved, be on your 
guard, always! Eternal vigilance is the price of 
safety. Devils throng every revival meeting, 
every altar, every pulpit, every secret place of 
prayer, yes the very gateways of heaven, to bear 
away the careless and self-confident. 



56 



IDENTIFICATION. 



How impressive, still, the weakness of 

THE AGENT OF PETER ? S APOSTASY! 

Who would have believed that that giddy, 
brazen, free-and-easy servant girl could have over- 
thrown the hero of the day of Pentecost, and tho 
inspiration of the only Church for a millennium 
and a half! Yet she did it. She started him down- 
ward; and once going, a babe could have com 
pleted the task. Beloved, let not this lesson be 
lost upon you. You are looking for some Goliali 
to confront you. You are armed for lions and 
dragons. You anticipate some stupendous attack. 
Let not Satan deceive you. Beware of the tempter 
beneath your notice. Beware of the temptation 
so small you scorn to think there is any peril. 
Beware of evil influences you think you can easily 
overcome. Remember Peter's apostasy. 

How impressive, moreover, was 

Peters Penitence. One sentence tells the whole 
story. "He went out and wept bitterly." Every 
word falls with the weight of a tear. The six 
words constitute the mightiest iliad ever written. 
u He went out and wept bitterly." Noble Peter! 
Never were you so near heaven before as in that 
hour. Never were you so dear to God, or so 
beautiful to the heavenly hosts. That sentence is 
the summit of your history; It is the crowning 
glory of your life. Others could suffer. Others 
drank the cup of martyrdom on the cross. But 
though all the Apostles forsook Jesus and fled, 



IDENTIFICATION. 



57 



Peter is the only one that wept. What an example 
for us to follow. u And he went out and wept 
bitterly.' 1 

But most impressive of all is the fact that 

JESUS FREELY FORGAVE AND RESTORRD HIM. 

Black as were Peters sins, Jesus made them 
whiter than the driven snow 

"A second look lie gave, which said, 
I freely all forgive 
This blood is for thy ransom paid; 
I die that thou mayst live/' 

In one of Rome's great conflicts the soldiers be- 
came disheartened and mutinous. At last they 
resolved to throw down their arms and give up 
the struggle. The General in vain tried to fire 
their courage and their patriotism. Though they 
loved him they were resolved, at all hazards, to 
desert him. But coming to a narrow defile in the 
mountains, in their retreat and abandonment of 
the field, where only one could pass at a time, the 
heroic General threw himself in the gap and said; 
wi If you go, you must go over my dead body.'' 
That was too much for them. Patriotism in the 
heart of the General, and love for their Com- 
mander in the hearts of the soldiers, triumphed, 
and Rome was saved. 

Christ has thrown Himself between a sin-cursed 
and dying world, and a flaming, endless hell. 
Every wanderer must trample His body underfoot 
and wade through His precious blood, if he would 



58 



IDENTIFICATION. 



be lost. For clown from the cross, yea, ciowi) 
from heaven, comes the tender cry of Jesns: 
"Turn ye, turn ye, for why will ye die." 

"Here at the cross where flows the blood 
That bought my guilty soul for God, 
Thee, my new Master, now I call, 
And consecrate to Thee my all." 

"Take my poor heart, and let it be 
Forever closed to all but Thee: 
Seal thou my breast, and let me wear 
That pledge of love forever there." 



THE GIFT OF POWER. 



Text: Acts of 'the Apostles , 1:8c ^Ye shall receive 
power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you. " 

The one universal desire of the human heart 
from the cradle to the grave, is for power. In this 
respect we are all Alexandrine and Napoleonic. 
We, too, would make conquest of the world had 
we sufficient power. The moralist who decries the 
world's conquerors as u human butchers" would 
himself u wade through slaughter to a throne, 
and shut the gates of mercy on mankind," had he 
but the power to do so. Poets have raved through 
whole cantos and historians have reveled in vitup- 
eration depicting the horrors of autocratic and 
despotic rule; still had the opportunity and power 
come to them, they would as quickly have vaulted 
into the world's saddle and ridden bruised and 
bleeding humanity as mercilessly as the borrowed 
horse is said to be rode. He who cries clown 
powei and disparages it, is a fit companion for the 
fox who declared the imperial, sun-kissed grapes 
after all were sour and unpalatable. 

All men are in life-long quest of power. Some 
seek it along the avenues of wealth. Especially 
is this true in the present century when wealth is 



60 



THE GIFT OF POWER. 



the u open sesame v to almost every position of 
power. It has almost passed into an adage that 
no poor man need apply for office in the United 
States. Senatorships are sold to the highest bid- 
der and the bids are so high that only money-kings 
as a rule, can tread senatorial halls. Three-fourths 
of our United States senators are millionaires. 
Our Centennial year was scandalized by a candi- 
date running for our highest office, largely on the 
ground of the "size of his barrel." Indeed so 
mighty is money we might almost modify James 
so he would say: Money is the source of all 
power. 

Others seek power along the lines of culture and 
learning. This was the secret of the untiring dili- 
gence of our own Webster and Sumner in the 
east, our Clay and Garfield in the West. Others 
plunge into politics with heart and soul in quest of 
crown. Andrew Jackson is a conspicuous exam- 
ple. Philip Hamilton and Martin Van Buren 
belong to the same company. They were all pro- 
fessional politicians. Two of them reached the 
zenith of their ambitions and the third probably 
would but for a tragic and untimely death. Yet 
others strive for place and power by resort to 
arms. All the halls of history, echo with the rattle 
of arms and the walls are adorned with the splen- 
dors of heroic exploits on land and sea. 

The drama of the world's history opens, in 
Genesis, with an exhibition of power. Mind van- 



THE GIFT OF POWER. 



bJ 



quished matter, and our flaming ball of matter, 
without form and void, took on form and comli- 
ness at the command of the Omnipotent. Eden 
witnessed another exhibition of power, when Eve 
measured swords with the Serpent. And so on, 
from the gates of Eden to the gateway of the pres- 
ent hour, there has been one, unbroken, over- 
whelming struggle for power. And this passion 
flower, blossoms not only on the highway at noon- 
time, but also at the morning and evening 
twilights, in the cradle and at the grave. 

The Disciples of the Lord Jesus were no excep- 
tion. They were simply men with broad shoulders, 
strong convictions, tender hearts and sensitive 
consciences. They were ambitious men, called to 
minister on the summits of the ages to countless 
multitudes, not only living, but yet to be born, 
some of them at the farthest rim of time. They 
had a holy zeal — a zeal as quenchless as the fires 
that burn on the altars on high. Three years with 
the Master had revealed to them two things: 

First: The Strength of their Enemies. All 
the enginery of Church and state was turned 
against them to slander, to anathematise and to 
destroy. 

Second: That the power of Christ was a part of 
his personality, and inseparable from His person 
and presence. To them the power exercised, was 
as inseparable from Christ, as heat is from the fire, 
or acidity is from the acid. In a certain sense the 



62 



THE GIFT OF POWER, 



power was independent of Christ impelling him. 
rather than being impelled by him; as we might 
say the tree enriches the sap instead of the sap 
enriching the tree. 

To them it was the rod of Moses that parted 
the sea, that rifted the rock, that plagued Egypt 
ten times, that put the foe to flight, and without 
the presence of the rod these mighty works could 
never have been wrought. So, without Christ's 
personality, bodily presence, in their way of think- 
ing there could be no exercise of super-human 
power. Had they not endeavored, m His absence 
to rid a boy of a grevious devil and failed? Had 
they not gone down into the very jaws of death 
on Galilee unable to control their vessel, or quell 
the raging sea? Had not God's honored servant, 
Elisha, tried to transfer his power to Gehazi and 
failed? Had not Simon Magus endeavored to use 
Divine power, whether or no, and been cursed for 
his temerity and sacrilege? All these things the 
Apostles remembered, and remembering trembled. 
Now to be left with a world wide, eternity-long 
Kingdom on their hands, to unfold, develop, en- 
large, enrich and defend, in the midst of bitter, 
powerful, relentless foes, without the bodily pres- 
ence of Jesus and hence without His power, was 
indeed enough to make heavy their hearts and fill 
them with fearful apprehensions. How can we 
feed the hungry, clothe the naked, medicine the 
sick, restore the deaf and dumb, the halt and 



THE GIFT OF POWER. 



6a 



blind, the maimed and crippled, the paralyzed and 
leprous, the sick and dying and silence the raging 
storms of heartless opposition? This, no doubt 
was their cry for days and months: "Who is 
sufficient for these things?" 

Three mighty civilizations were focused at Jeru- 
salem: the Jewish, the Grecian and the Roman. 
Th&y were very dissimilar and often antagonistic. 
The Jews would supply the world with religion, 
the Greeks with wisdom, and the Romans with 
power. Rome w T as the dominant power and how- 
ever galling it might be to the Jews and Greeks 
they had to acquiese in whatever Rome proposed. 
The three civilizations were alike lacking in piety, 
conscience and spirituality. They were grossly 
sensual and openly immoral. They were restive 
under restraint, and furious with opposition. Cat- 
alogue the sins our Saviour lays at their door and 
you will face and appalling array. These three 
mighty civilizations were stung to the quick by 
the precepts of the Nazarene and His Apostles, 
They decreed the extermination of both preachers 
and principles. The whole world rallied to the 
slaughter. One hundred and twenty millions 
rushed into the ranks— 120,000,000 against 12. It 
was an awful crisis. The hand was uplifted. The 
blow was about to be dealt. The Apostolic vic- 
tims believing themselves weak and helpless, 
cowered before their haughty would-be extermi 
nators, But just at this juncture, in the awful 



64 



THE GIFT OF POWER. 



darkness that is said to precede the coming day, 
came the promise, the glorious promise of Jesus: 
" Ye shall receive power after the Holy Ghost is come 
upon you." Mighty as are the Jews, and Greeks 
and Romans ye shall be mightier than any one of 
them, yea mightier than they all combined. The 
very gates of hell shall be powerless before you> 
Satan and all his cohorts shall be put to flight. 
u Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost 
is come upon you." 

I 

YE SHALL BE PERMEATED WITH OMNIPOTENCE. 

As the electrician puts his subject on a glass 
insulator, apart from everything, that he may 
receive in himself the full force of the electricity, 
so God put the Apostles on the Bible, the great 
and only conductor of Divine wisdom and power, 
and separated from all worldly material, and tem- 
poral things, they received the baptism of the Holy 
Ghost. This was an induement of power entirely 
independent of all outward conditions, sometimes 
in spite of all outer opposition. As the grass 
steadily rises through crusts and between the rocks 
to meet the sun, and as the eagle and the condor 
soar, in spite of gravitation, beyond the boun- 
dary of human vision, so the Apostles were to have 
an inner source of conquest that would bid de- 
fiance to every outer condition and circumstance. 
Thus imbued they could resist evil, conquer foes 
and take the world for Christ. Oh that we 



THE GIFT OF POWER. 



05 



to-day might draw upon that exhaustless source 
of power and become mighty for God and for the 
upbuilding of His Kingdom, "Ye shall receive 
power," 

1. To resist evil. u That they may be kept 
from evil" was our Saviour's prayer. He would 
have them wear the invulnerable armor of truth, 
He would have them equipped with all the 
accoutrements of warfare, and whatever power 
might be necessary, to successfully clo battle with 
Satan, He would supply. Power to resist evil, 
adamantine power — oh how much needed. And 
as the rock-bound coast beaten against by winds 
and waves for centuries, keeps the sea and the 
storm at bay, so Jesus, the Rock of Ages, becomes 
our Rock of defence. Thus sheltered, the soul is 
preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord 
Jesus Christ. u Upon this Rock I build My Church 
and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." 

Let us not be guilty of belittleing the grace that 
enables us to keep ones-self unspotted from the 
world. Though to refrain, simply, from evil, is 
only half the duty of a Christian, it is praise- 
worthy. Unfortunately too many of our people 
seek only the grace that will keep them from 
committing overt acts, forgetting that we are to do 
good, as well as refrain from evil. 

I once heard a church-member say he had to 
pray every morning for strength to keep him from 
giving light weight and short measure. Now I 



66 



THE GIFT OF POWER. 



would not dare to trade with that dear brother, 
lest some morning forgetting to pray, his old 
wicked ways would get the mastery of him and I 
should get short measure and light weight. Why, 
I believe there are thousands who are negatively 
religious — that is, they have too much honor and 
self-respect to do a little, mean thing, even though 
they had the opportunity to do so and none would 
be any the wiser. "Ye shall have power." 

2. To do mighty tilings for Jits Church. The 
Apostles were not only to resist, but to conquer 
also. They were not only to withstand the assault 
of the enemy, but they were to advance also and 
put the enemy to flight. They were to be Con- 
querers as well as withstanders. ''Forward" was 
to be a watchword as well as 4 'Steady." Oh my 
brethren resisting grace is indeed a glorious thing, 
but it is not at all to be compared with triumphant 
grace. May God give us all triumphant grace 
to-day. 

For twenty years we have been singing lustily: 
"Hold the Fort!" and have been apparently com 
tent with skulking behind the walls and ramparts 
while the devil and his allies have been having 
everything pretty much their own way in the great 
wide world without. In heaven's name let us get 
out and do something. God would have us quit 
fort holding and go to fort storming. Why the 
insect and the worm, contending for their own, 
put us to shame. What if Grant at Vicksburg, 



THE GIFT OF POWER. 



67 



the Wilderness, and before Richmond had been 
content with simply holding the fort. The North 
as well as the South would speedily have been in 
rebellion, and Mr. Lincoln would have said: 
"General, I sent you to take Richmond and de- 
stroy the Rebellion, and the Country and Almighty 
God expects you to doit!" So God has sent us 
forth to bombard the battlements of a wicked 
world and to crush a monstrous rebellion and He 
expects us to do it — now And the command is: 
u Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel 
to every creature, baptizing them in the name of 
the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy 
Ghost." And the promise is: u Lo I am with you 
alway." With you to comfort, with you to sustain, 
with you to give victory, with you to conduct at 
last, safe home to heaven. Begin at Jerusalem — 
but do not stay at Jerusalem forever. Take Judea, 
and Galilee, and Samaria, and the uttermost na- 
tion, and the farthest isle of the sea, take the 
whole world, no matter the cost. And u lo, I am 
with you always." 

Beloved, I glory in the resisting grace of God; 
that power that heaven sends down to succor my 
soul when assaulted by firey temptations and 
enables me to escape, unscathed and unharmed. 
My heart wells up in gratitude for that power of 
God that enables me to keep myself unspotted 
from the world. But above and beyond all this, 1 
rejoice with joy exceeding, w T hen I contemplate 



68 



THE GIFT OF POWER. 



the victorious grace of God. Oh Thou great Head 
of the Church, immortal, invisible, immutible, 
eternal, baptise Thy people to-day! Give them the 
baptism of power! Help Thy people to put Satan 
to flight and to rescue. those whom he has led 
away into captivity and spiritual death! And if 
we have not the triumphant, victorious grace of 
God, O beloved, let us fail upon our faces and cry 
aloud with tears and humble beseechings until He 
sees fit to bestow it upon us. Power! The victor- 
ious, triumphant power of God. 
But we pass on to consider 
II. 

HOW AND UPON WHAT CONDITIONS 18 THE POWER GIVEN. 

And I would emphasize 

1. Self-surrender to the Holy Ghost. The Holy 
Ghost comes to us only when we give Him the 
right of way. The ship, fresh from foreign shores, 
desiring to enter the harbor, hails a pilot. The 
pilot comes aboard. But no sum of money would 
induce him to undertake to conduct the vessel 
into the harbor, unless ship and crew — everything — 
were, for the time at least, surrendered to him. 
Otherwise the responsibility would be too great. 
But he is familiar with the tides and currents; he 
knows the location of every rock, he could draw 
from memory, an exact map of every dangerous 
place; he is competent and is employed at his own 
terms. The Holy Ghost is the Great Pilot of souls. 
He requires that we surrender our frail and storm 



THE GIFT OF POWER. 



69 



tossed barques to Him with the assurance that He 
will bring us safely into the port of everlasting 
peace. But this is not all. 

2. The Holy Ghost requires obedience. Our blunt 
old hero General Sherman, declares that obedience 
is the greatest military virtue. Before we can 
receive the baptism of power we must come into 
absolute obedience to the Holy Ghost. This is a 
day of sickly sentimentality and sickly sentimental- 
ism has even invaded the Church of God, And 
among the sickliest forms of sentimentalism is 
that of exaggerated self-depreciation. It is quite 
the fashion now to say: "Please do not ask me to 
pray, or testify, or do anything at all. If you do, 
I shall stay away from church. You see I am one 
of those unfortunate creatures that have no talent." 
Why bless you! How much talent does it require 
to obey God fully, when His most difficult com- 
mand is, Do right? Oh that all the idling, whin 
ing, sickly, good-for-nothing sentimentalists in the 
Church of God, had the spirit of grand, old rugged 
heroic Paul, when he said: I can do all things 
through God helping me! Then would we set the 
earth on fire and the Kingdoms of the world 
would speedily become the Kingdoms of our Lord 
and of His Christ. 

The Holy Ghost comes to marshall all our ran- 
somed powers and utilize them in the most effect- 
ive way. I once stood on a rock far out at sea. 
A storm had swept over the deep, a few hours 



70 



THE GIFT OF POWER. 



before, and the waves were dashing high. So 
sublime was the scene that I forgot the peril of my 
position until the maddened waves, lifted by the 
on-coming tide, had almost cut oft' my way of 
escape. 

There was power — power enough not only to 
engulf me, but to have engulfed whole armies and 
navies, but there was no marshalling or organizing 
power to grasp me and hurry me down to death — 
no moving spirit to direct the forces. 

How often have I thought of that hour, when 
listening to men and woman capable of great use 
fulness but having no power to utilize their forces, 
All this mighty army needs, to make it unconquer- 
able, is the baptism of the Holy Ghost. 

Here are two needles, the same size, color, 
quality and composition. But one points always 
to the north: the other is cold and dead, and inert. 
What is the difference? One has been magnetized, 
and the other has not. So here are two men. 
They sprang from the same loins; were reared in 
the same home, educated in the same schools, 
moved in the same society; but one is a mighty 
power for God and humanity, while the other is a 
burden to himself and to everybody with whom 
he comes in contact. How explain the difference? 
Easy enough! The one was, and other was not, 
baptized with the Holy Ghost. But again: 



THE GIFT OF POWER. 



71 



III. 

THE HOLY GHOST ESTABLISHES CONFIDENCE. 

Abraham feared to journey in a strange land and 
among strange people until God appeared unto 
him saying: "I am the Almighty God; walk thou 
before Me, in My presence;" then fear fled. 

Jesus bade the Apostles go into all the world. 
But knowing the perils and timidity of their hearts, 
He added: u Lo, I am with you always, even unto 
the end of the world." And from thenceforth 
they were as dauntless as Numidian lions. 

John the Baptist was most daresome. Fearless 
as the tiger, when it is enraged, confronting and 
denouncing the rulers for their sins and daring 
maddened multitude-s, to do their worst, every- 
where crying: u O generation of vipers! How can 
you escape the damnation of hell;" alone in the 
silent night of the world's sinfulness and woe; he 
the last of the prophets; the altar no longer bright 
and warm with holy fire. And yet he preached 
on, people repented, and many were saved. 
And when we seek the foundation of this marvel- 
ous faith, courage and devotion, we find it in 
these words: "He shall be filled with the Holy 
Ghost from his mother's womb." 

Look at Peter. How account for his heroism on 
the day of Pentecost? Only forty-three days before, 
he had forsaken the Master "They all forsook 
Him and fled." Peter with bitter and vehement 
oaths, declared he knew not the Nazarene, He 



72 



THE GIFT OP POAVER* 



was livid with fear; he trembled with fright. But 
on the day of Pentecost; in the same city, before 
the same multitude, surrounded by the same 
scheming, merciless enemies, now goaded on and 
enflamed by success in getting away with the great 
Leader, Peter poured out that wonderful Gospel 
philippic and three thousand were saved. Nor was 
it a momentary flash of courage. He dared every- 
thing for years, until finally he drank the cup of 
martyrdom, head downward, on the cross. How 
account for the wonderful transformation in Peter's 
character? Easy enough. A cloven tongue of 
fire sat on his head and he was filled with the Holy 
Ghost. 
Yet again: 

IV. 

THE HOLY GHOST IS A REVEALER. 

The Holy Ghost takes of the things of God and 
reveals them unto men. Not that he compels 
men to be wise; not that he encourages intellectual 
and spiritual idleness — by no means. But he who 
diligently seeks to know the will and mind of God 
is continually aided by the Holy Ghost. And the 
Holy Ghost is the best of all teachers. 

A blind man may have some conception of the 
glory of mountain, hill and dale; of woodland 
and prairie, cosy dell and grotto. But his 
mental pictures cannot compare with those that 
light, paints upon the walls of vision. So men may 
learn something about God without a special out- 



THE GIFT OF POWER. 



73 



pouring of the Holy Ghost. He may be stirred in 

reading the stories of Sinai and Calvary as he is 

by reading Hamlet, or Macbeth, Paradise 

Lost or the Iliad, but there is no face to face 

vision of God until the Holy Spirit comes with 

soul-quickening, soul-illuminating power and 

blessedness, Only the New Birth, and the Beatific 

Vision can cause the soul to smg: 

"When I survey the wond'rous cross 
On which the Prince of Glory died, 
My richest gain I count but loss, 
And pour contempt on all my pride." 

Here we find the explanation of our inferior 
modern hymns. We have hymn writers in the 
Church, educated, highly intellectual, masters of 
hymnodic art; and yet what sorry stuff they give 
us! What's lacking? Brains? No. Education? 
No. Culture? No. What then? I answer, the 
baptism of the Holy Ghost and fire. 

The same thing may be said, in a considerable 
measure, of the ministry. We have a wonderful 
increase of lofty learning, of rhetorical finish, of 
elocutionary art — of everything except the one 
essential, namely — the power of the Holy Ghost. 
Oh that all our hymn writers, our singers and our 
preachers might have an old-time, old-fashioned 
Pentecostal out pouring. Fray for the heavenly 
anointing to-day, 



74 



THE GIFT OF POWER. 



"Oh that it now from heaven might fall 
And all our ^ins consume 
Come Holy Ghost! For Thee I call! 
Spirit of burning come. 

"Refining fire, go through my heart, 
Illuminate my soul ; 
Scatter thy life through every part, 
And sanctify the whole." 

And. now a few concluding remarks: 
1. This is our only hope of present success and 
ultimate victory. Men are convinced by testi- 
mony — the testimony of both pulpit and pew. 
But we can testify only of those things concerning 
which we have positive, personal knowledge. Here- 
say is of no value. The experiences of the past, 
will not answer for to-day. A living, vital, Holy 
Ghost, gospel experience now, is the supreme 
need of the hour. Let so-called liberals stand up 
and say: 

"It is a point I long to know 
Oft it causes anxious thought, 
Do I love the Lord, or no, 
Am I His, or am I not?" 

But let the conquering, blood -washed army of 
King Emmanuel shout u We know that we have 
passed from death unto life." ''The Spirit itself 
beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the 
children of God: and if children, then heirs, heirs 
of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that 
we suffer with Him, that we maybe also glorified 
together. For I reckon, that the sufferings of this 



THE GIFT OF POWER. 



75 



present time are not worthy to be compared with 
the glory which shall be revealed in us." There! 
Paul gives us a whole system of theology, cover- 
ing time and eternity, in three short verses. 

2. The Holy Ghost is the only Bond of unity. 
Here so-called Liberalism breaks and falls into 
numberless fragments. Infidelity has neither 
center nor sj r stem; it has no system of interpreta- 
tion. And dark will be the day with us, when we 
begin to play fast and loose, or discard altogether 
the Spirit, whose promise is: C4 I will lead you 
into the truth." "But is not the Bond galling," 
says some so-called Free Thinker, u that binds you 
together?" Oh no! It is blessed! 

' 'Blest be the tie that binds, 

Our hearts in Christian love!" 

3. The Holy Ghost is the only motive Power in 
the Spiritual Realm. There is but one Father, 
and there is but one Saviour; so there is but one 
Motive Power in the Spiritual Realm, and He is 
the Holy Ghost. Whatever prosperity, real and 
true spiritual prosperity, any Church enjoys, comes 
from the great Spirit. And just in proportion as 
we conform to the will of God and honor the 
Spirit, does the Spirit honor us. How account for 
the dying condition of all so-called liberal Churches 
as a rule. They slight and dishonor the Holy 
Ghost. How account for the wonderful progress 
of the Evangelical denominations? They have 



70 



THE GIFT OF POWER, 



honored the Holy Ghost and the Holy Ghost has 
honored them. 

I once walked down the streets of Lewiston, 
Maine and I saw the Lincoln Mills closed; looms, 
shuttles, weavers, spinners — all silent. Thirteen 
hundred men and women stood about in silence. 
There was no steam in the boilers. But after awhile 
steam was up, the engineer rang the bell, opened 
the throttle-valve, and everything suddenly be- 
came animate. So in the Church of God we have 
machinery in abundance, and men and women in 
abundance, but we lack power. Oh! Thou great, 
Lord God Omnipotent, send down such power- 
to-day as Thou seest that we need. Quicken our 
zeal. Electrify and illuminate our consciences 
Speed us, and speed Zion in our great work. 

Oh! my brethren let us go in now for this endue- 
ment of power. Let us have clean hands and 
pure hearts, and sanctified souls. Let us surrender 
fully and completely to the Holy Ghost and in 
everything — absolutely everything — be obedient 
to Him. Let us be as good and as useful as our 
own utmost endeavors and the utmost endeavors 
of an Omnipotent God can possibly make us. Let 
us not stop short of the most and of the best. We 
shall soon be gone from these scenes forever. Our 
shadows fall toward the east. The undertaker is 
at the door, and coffin and shroud are already or- 
derecL The time of our departure is at hand. 
Beloved, let us leave a bright and glorious record 
behind. 



THE GIFT OF POWER. 

"Lord, we believe to us and ours, 
The apostolic promise given; 
We wait the Pentecostal powers, 
The Holy Ghost sent down from heaven. 

"Assembled here with one accord, 
Calmly we wait the promised grace, 
The purchase of our dyings Lord ; 
Come, Holy Ghost, and fill the place. 

"If every one that asks, may find, 
If still Thou dost on sinners fall, 
Come as a mighty rushing wind; 
Great grace be now upon us all, 

"O leave us not to mourn below, 
Or long for Thy return to pine, 
Now, Lord, the Comforter bestow, 
And fix in us the Guest divine/' 



OPPORTUNITIES. 



Text: Sleep on now. Hise, let us be going. 
Matthew xxvi; 45. 



Ralph Waldo Emerson was accustomed to say: 
"It makes a great difference in the force of a sen- 
tence whether a man be behind it or no." Many 
sayings are not intrinsically great, yet are treasured 
by the world's philosophers and handed down as 
precious heirlooms, from generation to generation. 
Sayings, more eloquent, incisive and poetic, were 
forgotten in an hour. There was a man behind the 
one saying; there was only a babbler behind the 
other. For this reason great men are credited 
with many things they never said, or even thought 
or dreamed. Who believes Lincoln told all the 
stories that are attributed to him? That Shakespere 
wrote all the plays bearing his name. Or that 
Socrates is the author of that rainbow of sublime 
moralisms that spans the pagan sky? Men know- 
ing that their common clay will not pass current 
with their own homely and obscure image and 
superscription thereon, boldly put on the image 
and superscription of some literary, political, re- 
ligious or philosophical Caesar. Not they, but 
Lincoln or Shakespere or Socrates said it. And 



OPPORTUNITIES. 



79 



men, seeing the image and superscription of some 
regnant Caesar take the spurious coin, easily fall- 
ing dupes to the counterfeiters. "It makes a great 
difference in the force of a sentence whether a man 
be behind it or no." 

For this reason the sayings of Jesus, the God- 
Man, are supremely interesting. Though "all 
Scripture is given by inspiration of God," and all 
the inspired writers wrote as they were moved by 
the Holy Ghost, and the sayings of Paul and his 
co-adjutors are as authoritative as the sayings of 
Jesus, nevertheless "the very words of Jesus" 
have a weight, and height, and capacity found in 
the words of no patriarch, prophet, king, priest, 
or apostle. Our text fell from the heart and lips 
of Jesus. 

Moreover, words are often intensified by the oc- 
casion of their utterance. Caesars famous "vent, 
vidi, vici" the dying exclamations of Socrates, 
Emmet, and Webster, Commodore Perry's laconic 
message to Congress after his great Lake Erie 
victory, Jackson's toast at the Jefferson Birthday 
Celebration in 18*30 — "Our Federal Union: It 
must be preserved," Webster's exclamation in 
his Hayne rejoinder — "Liberty and Union, now 
and forever, one and inseparable," will illustrate 
our meaning. Spoken on an ordinary occasion 
they would have been but common-place; but on 
the summit where passion and patriotism was 
transfigured they have become immortal. 



80 



OPPORTUNITIES. 



Now the sayings of Jesus are never common- 
place; but sometimes they are more thrilling than 
at others. The scenes at the Jordan, on Hermon, 
in Gethsemane, and on Calvary, are specially 
memorable. We read the record and ponder each 
word over and over again. Some of us could 
repeat the Scriptures from memory. Not that we 
value the parables and miracles less; not that His 
wayside and out-of-the-way discourses are not 
appreciated; not that His very looks and gestures 
do not wonderfully interest us — but these crucial 
occasions, tower like mountain ranges, above all 
the peaks and plains below. The eye as naturally 
seeks them, and rests there entranced, as water 
seeks its level and there finds repose. Our text 
is thrilling from every stand-point. Author, time, 
place and occasion conspire to make it of supreme 
interest to every one. 

Turning from the guest's chamber in the "City 
of the great King,' 5 we see the Master and the 
eleven, passing out at the historic gate unchallenged 
by the drowsy, or perhaps sleeping, guardian of 
the people's peace and safety. Down over the 
marble steps, down through the thronging multi- 
tude of Passover pilgrims, down out of the noise 
and turbulence they hasten to a place of quietude 
and prayer. The moon is in full orb, the melting 
heavens bend beseechingly and the city, now left 
behind, is resplendent and glorious, "though asleep 
in utter indifference to the claims of her most lion- 



OPPORTUNITIES 



81 



ored Guest." At last reaching the gateway of 
Gethsemane, He says to the eight: w 'Tarry ye 
here, while I go and pray yonder." He then takes 
the favored three with Him and enters the shad- 
ows of the fateful garden. With a look of bound- 
less solicitude and a tone of immeasurable sadness 
He says: "Tarry ye here and watch with Me/ 1 
And he went a little farther and fell on His face and 
prayed, saying, "O My Father, if it be possible let 
this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will 
but as Thou wilt. And He cometh unto the dis- 
ciples, and findeth them asleep, and saith unto 
Peter, What could you not watch with Me one 
hour^ Watch and pray, that ye enter not into 
temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the 
flesh is weak." 

Here, in silence and alone, He is weighed in 
the balance and not found wanting. Earth, 
heaven and hell circle in pity, hope and hate about 
that awful hour: heaven to be honored, hell de- 
feated, and earth redeemed. What though hell 
comes up against Him, and earth in shameful in- 
difference, sleeps the hours away; what though 
his anguish was so great that blood surged through 
His beaten and empurpled skin and but for the 
interposition of an angel He would have fainted 
and perished — through it all he was as sweet as 
the drippings of honey, yet as immovable 
as the arching firmament that seemed to long to 
gather Him up into her bosom. 



82 



OPPORTUNITIES. 



We are told the crucial test came at midnight: 
ah! it was midnight in more ways than one. It 
was well nigh the midnight of everlasting doom 
and death. It was fitting that friendly shadows 
should shut in the Man of Sorrows. What cared 
the populace for His sighs and tears and groans? 
What cared they for His devouring and all-con- 
suming agony ? What cared they for his bath of 
blood? Would they not soon be hissing the 
hounds upon Him, and spitting on Him, and 
flaying him, and dragging him out to Calvary, and 
nailing and spearing him, and mocking his un- 
fathomable and inexplicable agony? To all — per- 
haps not excepting Jesus — it was an hour of fail- 
ure, wherein the curse of sin was crushing out the 
life of earth's Maker, and blotting out, with re- 
morseless hand, it's only hope. Life and immor- 
tality yet slumbered in the womb of the future, 
and Peter, James and John, as if stupified by the 
powers of darkness, fall into unbroken slumbers. 

"Tis midnight and from all removed, 
The Saviour wrestles lone with fears; 
E'en that disciple whom He loved, 
Heeds not his Master's grief and tears." 

Coming thrice and each time finding them 
serenely sleeping He says: 

u SLEEP ON NOW.'* 

We are startled both by the tone and the senti- 
ment. Only a moment before he was tempest- 
tossed in utterance and emotion, but now He is as 



OPPORTUNITIES. 



83 



calm as a summer twilight and His words fall like 
dripping oil. "Sleep on now." What did He 
mean? Was it: "All is over; you have chosen 
sleep rather than honor; there is nothing for you 
— sleep on!" Or: "My battle is fought and won, 
give yourselves no farther concern!" Or, yet 
farther, did He speak as a father, saying in sub 
stance: "Sleep on My children, all is well." 

Whatever the direct teaching may be, it is to 
me suggestive of opportunity; it was a lost glor- 
ious opportunity to render our Lord a royal service 
and in turn secure the honor of a place in one of 
the grandest pictures that will hang upon the walls 
of our heavenly mansion. I am then, first of all 
impressed with the fact that 

Jesus needed human Kelp, The three Apostles 
were taken for that purpose. Thrice our Saviour 
turned to them, to receive in turn what He had so 
lavished upon them; but finds them asleep. While 
the world hastened from palace to hovel with 
condolence even for the most trifling sorrows and 
trials, the King of Glory was left alone. 

You say: "They could not sympathize with 
Him." True enough; but they could have watched 
with Him; they could have mingled their prayers 
and tears with His; they could have held His 
head, and chafed His hands, and borne up His 
prostrate body; they could have listened to the 
recital of His unspeakable anguish; they could 
have re-affirmed their quenchless love for Him 



84 



OPPORTUNITIES. 



and vowed eternal fidelity to Him; they could 
have woven some of the warp of their warmth, 
hope, cheer and' love into the battered woof 
of His breaking heart; they could have entered 
into a field of usefulness that angels coveted and 
which it was granted to an angel to occupy and 
enjoy. But they slumbered and slept. But I am 
still farther impressed with 

The ApOstles* Irreparable Loss. Much as Jesus 
needs them, infinitely greater was their need of 
Him, and the instruction and girding of that hour. 
The history of ages were culminating in the God- 
Man; the eternities were circling about His head; 
hoary and august prophesies were rushing into 
fulfillment; types were dissolving while all the 
sacrifices of patriarchal and Levitical altars, were 
springing into everlasting potency for all the 
countless millions who fell asleep before the birth 
of the great and all-sufficient Sacrifice, the thun- 
ders of Sinai were melting into tones of love, while 
all the multiplied millions from Adam to the 
Mother of Jesus hung spell-bound, hope mingling 
with fear, for everything temporal and eternal, 
earthly and heavenly, hinged upon that hour. 

How much the Apostolic trio missed that night 
— who can tell? It is said that Paul once visited 
the tomb of the pagan poet Virgil and wept be- 
cause the opportunity was not afforded him to 
learn of Jesus and tune his harp to sing His 
praises. Well might the three Apostles have wept in 



OPPORTUNITIES. 



85 



memory of the fact that physical stupidity robbed 
them of this wonderful opportunity. Alas, how 
many of us have similar losses to mourn. But 
again: I am impressed with the fact that 

Sped opportunities never return. They are like 
falling stars which never return to the forsaken 
orbit; like the hurrying waters that scorn to 
return to the primal fount; like the bird that 
plumes its wings for upward flight and forever 
forsakes its mother's nest. Shakespere well says: 

"Who seeks, and will not take when once tis offered, 
Shall never find it more/' 

And again the immortal bard exclaims: 

"There is a tide in the affairs of men, 
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune, 
Omitted, all the voyage of their life 
Is bound in shallows and in miseries/' 

Opportunities are the golden apples of the gar- 
dens of Hesperides. Only a few favored mortals 
are able to vie with the gods in gathering them. 
And he who gathers them becomes god-like. The 
secret of success lies in the seizure of opportuni- 
ties as they fly along, with shaggy locks in front, 
but perfectly bald behind. Franklin seized the 
shaft of lightning and won immortal fame; Gar- 
field with the hunger of death, seized every oppor- 
tunity for culture of every sort, and became the 
King of American Hearts, along with Lincoln, 
Logan and a few others. The youth who neglects 
the opportunity of today, will find himself stranded 



86 



OPPORTUNITIES. 



and wrecked tomorrow. The boy who plays 
"hookey" with his mathematics will find that 
mechanics will play "hookey" with him in man- 
hood. It is too late to master mathematics and 
languages when called to a professorship, to mas 
ter mechanics when the house is waiting to be 
built, to master the military art, when infantry, 
artillery and cavalry by brigades, battalions and 
corps are sweeping pell-mell down upon you. 
The early riser is successful because he captures 
and utilizes the teeming opportunities hurrying 
over the hills on the wings of the winds, trying to 
waken drowsy mortals with golden javelins of 
light. 

Sleep not amid gracious opportunities. The 
hours are hurrying and the demands to be made 
are not to be measured by what you are, but what 
you could have been had you improved your op- 
portunities. 

"For of all sad words of tongue or pen, 
The saddest are these — 'It might have been/ " 

I would have the children yet at home look into 
that hallowed and sacred precinct. Remember 
that these glorious opportunities of home, offered 
you today — these gracious and almost heavenly 
privileges — will soon be over, and over forever. 
Father and mother are nearing the sunset. The 
thread of their lives is brittler than you imagine, 
The pot of manna at the foot of the rainbow is 
nearer than even they themselves dream. Soon 



OPPORTUNITIES. 



81 



the silver cord will be loosed, the golden bowl 
and the silvern pitcher will go a crash and a 
wreck at the fountain, and the wheel will collapse 
from hub to tire and the chariot of life will fall 
into the ditch. Ah me! I pity, I commiserate you. 
My heart bleeds for you in anticipation of that 
hour when you will wail aloud: U I have no father 
— I have no mother, now." Do what you can to 
make them happy; for, when they have gone to 
their "long home, and the mourners go about the 
streets," it will be too late. Oh, who that has 
lost his home, but wishes he had been tenderer 
and truer to it and the loved ones there. 

Let me bring the same exhortation to parents 
relative to their children. Many parents wonder 
why their children are so anxious to get away 
from home, and when once away, return so seldom 
and then only for the briefest period that decency 
will permit. Were you always tender and com- 
passionate as parents, patient and long-suffering, 
abundant in smiles and kisses, rich in love and 
caresses? Or were you stern and severe — a petty 
tyrant and despot? Were you often hard and 
harsh; unrelenting and unforgiving? Were you too 
busy to enter into the life and love, the joy and 
hope, the ambitions and aspirations, the sorrows 
and disappointments, the heartaches and heart- 
breaks of your children? Make life in the home, 
run like golden sands though without billows and 
breakers madly roar! Make home a place where 



88 



OPPORTUNITIES. 



angels would delight to dwell. But I am still 
farther moved by the deep pathos of the words, 

'"Sleep on iVW," It was said that Whitefield 
could make whole audiences sob aloud by simply 
saying "Mesopotamia." t What a tempest of tears 
and sobs could he have evoked by the recital of 
our Saviour's passion and the pronunciation of 
His pitiful words: "Sleep on now." 

Opportunities have but one presentation: "Sleep 
<>n now." The picture of Gethsemane is gone into 
that gallery where changes never take place; all 
eternity will gaze upon the comforting angel's 
glorious and radiant countenance, but Peter, 
James and John will have no place in it. 

There was but one Mount of Transfiguration, 
one Gethsemane, one Calvary, one Bethany. 
Each had its lessons. Peter, James and John 
were invited to all. Two alas, were neglected. 
How much they lost, and how much through 
their neglect we are bereft of, heaven only, could 
tell. The impressions of the transfiguration were 
powerful. Peter thirty years and John forty 
years afterward, revert to that scene of bewildering 
yet blessed sublimity: Bethany, likewise, made 
a lasting impress upon them, and we to-day are 
the beneficiaries in untold treasures. What treas- 
ures we might have obtained in Gethsemane! But 
our representatives slept. So with the final scene 
on Calvary, What a harvest of wisdom and 
blessedness might have been garnered for us on 



OPPORTUNITIES. 



89 



the field of the crucifixion, but the ten harvesters 
were far away. Nicodemus and the Arimathean 
Joseph, closed the lips of immortal sayings, and 
composed the hands of untiring beneficence. 
Gethsemane and Calvary are, in the main, sealed 
books to us. The passion and the crucifixion could 
not be repeated. We see those hallowed places 
now through a glass darkly, and hence know only 
in part. 

It was my lot, said a sea Captain, to fall in with 
the ill-fated steamer, 4 'The Central America." The 
sea was rolling high and flecked with foam. I 
hailed the ship and the Captain said: "We are in 
a sinking condition." I said: "Come on board." 
He replied: "Wait until morning." I answered: 
"Captain, you would better come tonight.'' 
Over the waves came the trumpeted and repeated 
request: "Wait until morning." I tried to do so, 
continued the narrator, but winds and waves were 
wild and I could not keep my position. The 
morning came, but I never saw "The Central 
America" again. Her fate remains one of the 
many mysteries the sea refuses to reveal. Neglect 
ended in death. The lost opportunity could not 
be found. 

I have read of a man who possessed large 
wealth, and having heard of a jewel of fabulous 
value, sold all his possessions and going into a 
distant land purchased it, giving everything he 
had in exchange. 



90 



OPPORTUNITIES. 



Returning home from beyond the seas, he would 
toss it high in the air exciting the admiration of some, 
and the envy of others. At first he was tremulous 
and cautious, but at last gaining confidence, he 
threw it vast distances. He was warned, but re- 
fused to heed. Nearing his native land, and em- 
boldened by his success, he tossed it higher than 
ever. But his calculation was at fault and it sank 
into the bottom of the ocean. 

Dear friends, you are equally careless with a 
jeweled opportunity, representing the value of your 
own immortal soul. WMl you vainly toss it away? 

We wonder that any one should sell all the 
glory of being a partaker of the atonement for one 
hour of sleep; that any should wait in a sinking 
.ship until swallowed up when urged to go on 
board a sea-worthy craft — and yet our wonder is 
but the universal experience of the angels as they 
see us wasting our opportunities. 

Had we beheld the miracles of Jesus, from his 
first miracle in Cana when c *The conscious water 
saw its God and blushed," to his conquest of 
death again and again, until, at Bethany, He 
brought forth one in whom molecular decomposi- 
tion had set in, we think we would have yielded to 
Him as with streaming eyes and out-stretched 
arms, He cried: u O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou 
that killest the prophets and stonest them which 
are sent unto thee, how often would I have gath- 
ered thy children together, even as a hen gather- 



OPPORTUNITIES. 



91 



eth her chickens under her wings, and ye would 
not! Behold, your house is left unto you deso- 
late." 

And I confess to a shrinking from the Jerusa- 
lem chapter of the Judgment. I read the words 
of Jesus to His disciples when He said: u Blessed 
are the eyes which see the things which ye see. 
For I tell you that many prophets and kings have 
desired to see those things which ye see and have 
not seen them, and to hear those things which ye 
hear and have not heard them." I do not 
want my name registered in the Jerusalem that 
crucified the world's Redeemer. I would not like 
to be counted with the 600,000 who, with hearts 
hard as the rocky plateaus of Jehoshaphat where 
they stood, heard, but refused to heed, the wards 
of Jesus. I would shudder at the thought of stand- 
ing with those who put the cross on their Lord, 
and roared with scorn and brutal epithet when He 
fainted beneath it. 

Fair city — yes thou art fair. Thou art the crown - 
jewel in the diadem of cities. Thou art the idol, 
the dearest dream, of poet, painter and dreamer, 
What garlands have been woven for thy brow! 
What gems have flashed from thy bosom! What 
Iliads and Miserreres have been swept from the 
harps of thy adorers in jubilation or commisera- 
tion! City of the Great King! Ah yes — but there 
is the street through which David, the Great 
King, fled; there the hall where hell gained its 



92 



OPPORTUNITIES. 



chief victory; the temple where Jesus was auctioned 
off, to a heartless bidder, for less than $15.00 of 
our money; out of yonder gate went the murder- 
ess of John the Baptist; down yonder avenues 
went the slaughterers of Bethlehem's babes; under 
yonder porch life everlasting was offered to all 
men and ruthlessly rejected; in yonder sacred 
precinct Stephen, under a shower of stones, "fell 
asleep." Will it not indeed be more tolerable for 
Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of Judgment 
than for the fair, yet adulterous and murderous 
Jerusalem, Jezebel among cities? 

And yet — and yet, how much better are many 
of us? We are called to walk in greater light than 
the loftiest spirits of that day enjoyed; the advan- 
tages and opportunities of this century are sure to 
make greater demands at our hands. We may 
not sit on the Mount of Transfiguration or on the 
Plain of Multiplication; we may not see the blind 
miraculously restored to sight; we may not witness 
physical resurrections. They are no longer necess- 
ary. The great questions of death, hell and the 
grave are settled in the Sonship of our risen Lord. 
The "ifs" and "maybes" and "hopes" of Peter's 
day, are now eternal verities. 

"If this counsel or this work," said Gamaliel, 
"be of men, it will come to naught: but if it be 
of God, ye cannot overthrow it." The conquests, 
the providences, and the fulfillment of prophesies 
have proven it to be of God, and now the harvest 



OPPORTUNITIES. 



93 



time is nearing. Rewards and rebukes are close 
at hand. Can we say with Paul: ■ 'Henceforth 
there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness." 
Or shall we have to beseech the rocks to hide us 
from sight? 

My brother, how have you improved the innum- 
erable opportunities that God has afforded you? 
Or have you neglected them entirely? A woman 
has been wooed and won; a family has blossomed 
about your hearthstone; a Sabbath School class 
lingers at your feet, the doors of Society, Church 
and State have been thrown open to you — what 
have you done for God? What have you done for 
humanity? Your lease is running out. Time is 
slipping through your hands, like water through 
the marble lips of yonder sculptured fairy! Are 
you ready for the midnight cry: u Behold, the 
Bridegroom cometh?" Were he to come tonight 
would your place be with Dives or Lazarus? 

Dwell only a moment longer on our theme. 
Consider the command: 

"Rise! Let its he going!" The loss of the past 
does not excuse us for squandering the present and 
the future. The hymn of our fathers was full of 
comfort: 

' Much of my time has run to waste, 
And I perhaps am near my home; 
But he forgives my follies past, 

And gives me strengthyor days to come." 

Thank God, there is mercy for squanderers of the 



04 



OPPORTUNITIES. 



past, if they will but redeem the present and 
crowd the future with usefulness and honor. u Look 
not mournfully into the Past; it comes not back 
again. Wisely improve the Present; it is thine. 
Go forth to meet the shadowy Future without fear 
and with a manly heart.''' 

But beware of sleep — beware of slothfulness. 
He who prefers slumber need not dream of 
honors. The central principle of success is action. 
u If any man will be My disciple let him deny 
himself, take up his cross and follow Me." Vain 
is that man who hopes for strength without strug- 
gle. 

As a rule rich men's sons do not accumulate 
wealth, for the reason they refuse to acquire 
strength by struggling. They would rather slum- 
ber. Generally one generation gathers, the next 
scatters abroad. Perhaps ministerial poverty is 
providential. The people distrust rich preachers; 
rich preachers, as a rule, lack grip. They may 
mean well; so did Peter, James and John. But 
wealth is soporific. It lulls and soothes and leads 
to slumber. Wealth, won or wedded, has not 
unfrequently dethroned many a pulpit king. 
Wealth, like a veritable Delilah, has shorn many 
a gospel Samson of every lock of power, 

I once said to a millionaire as he watched a dar- 
ling grandchild: That boy has nine chances to 
fail, to one of success. 4 'Why? 1 ' was the quick 
response. I replied : Because of the $100,000 de- 



OPPORTUNITIES. 



95 



posited as a birthday gift, and the $50,000 you 
give him annually. He will never feel the spur of 
necessity; he will never struggle for strength, and 
strength cannot be bought at any other price. 
Watching and praying — in other words, struggle 
— might have given Peter, James and John a 
place in the Gethsemane picture. Money can 
never put them there. Some things cannot be 
bought by gold. 

Beware of self indulgence, you will sleep too 
long. The sleep-habit grows. If you sleep every 
day for a month you will have the habit fixed 
upon you. If you begin with an hour per day, 
you will soon require two hours, and then more 
and more and more. Pleasures, along the line of 
self-indulgence are most seductive. Hence the 
perils of gluttony, drunkenness and licentiousness. 

On the coast of Norway there are many deep 
and dangerous whirlpools. A company of pleasure 
seekers determined upon an excursion near one of 
these perilous places. Reaching the vicinity of 
the whirlpool, their boat glided gracefully 
and smoothly around. Filled with delightful 
wonder and amazement, they reclined on 
their oars and fell asleep. But suddenly craft, 
crew, and company were swallowed down into the 
hungry and ravenous maw of the sea. Pleasure 
seekers, let me exhort you, in the language of 
Jesus, to "watch and pray, lest ye enter into 
temptation," 



Ob 



OPPORTUNITIES, 



"Rise let us be going !" How these words of 
Jesus should thrill our hearts. Yes, we speedily 
shall be going, going from life into death, going 
from the loved ones here, to the loved ones be- 
yond, going from time to eternity. "What thou 
doest, do quickly" "eternity is drawing nigh." 

1 'Eternity! Eternity! 

That boundless, soundless, tideless sea, 

Of mysteries the mystery, 

What is eternity to me ?" 

"Infinite bliss or misery, 

Woe past, woe present, woe to be ; 

The fulness of felicity; 

These are eternity to me." 

''Two voices from eternity! 
A voice from heaven comes down to me, 
A voice from hell breaks dolefully, 
'Life — death — O man, are offered thee.' " 

"The abyss is moved; even wrath cries 'flee, 
The height expands, and Love cries, 'See 
What God hath here prepared for thee; 
Choose thou thine own eternity." 

Rise, let us he going ! 
Rise let us be DOING! 



THE MATCHLESS VISITOR. 



Text: Beliold I stand at the door and knock. 
Rev. in : 20. 



This is a remarkable text. The King knocks at 
the door of his subject. He comes alone. He 
makes a special visit for the purpose of having a 
private interview. He comes of his own accord, 
and without invitation. More wonderful still: 
His subject is a condemned and sentenced crimi- 
nal. After a full and impartial trial — indeed upon 
his own confession — he is found guilty of almost 
innumerable crimes. The sentence is death; but 
so indifferent or hardened in evil-doing, he neither 
asks nor craves clemency nor pardon. He neither 
exhibits nor feels contrition ; he sometimes seems 
to glory in his crime. The law can take its course; 
the King and His minions may do their worst; but 
he will never sue for mercy. He even goes so far 
as to reject all the servants of the King and to 
profane His name. Even hardened criminals, 
accustomed to all manner of wickedness, are vis- 
ited by this king, where the very atmosphere in 
which men move is charged with the malaria of 
iniquity and the pestilence of endless death. Yet 
the King, knowing the worst, comes down to their 



98 



THE MATCHLESS VISITOR. 



abode and standing without, calls to them, saying: 
"Behold I stand at the door and knock." 

But many have found it exceedingly difficult to 
gain the attention and confidence of those to 
whom they have gone on errands of mercy and 
salvation. And the greater the peril, and "the 
more imperative the necessity of help, the* less 
willing are men to hear and heed and to be 
helped. Every great leader and deliverer — Will- 
iam of Orange, Washington, Garibaldi, Lincoln 
— bring the same complaint: the apathy and in- 
difference, if not actual hostility of those for whom 
they labored, and were willing to pour out every 
treasure of heart and life. 

Bunyan's picture of an angel, and a boy with his 
mud rake gathering a few bits of peat that must 
perish with the using, is most suggestive. While 
the angel poises above his head with a crown of 
gold and eagerly tries to win his attention he 
works on blind and deaf and dumb to every heav- 
enly influence. So the hardened criminal acted; 
so the great King was treated. 

Says Jesus, "These commandments have I 
spoken unto you, that My joy might remain in 
you and that your joy might be full." Men long 
for joy, but they do not believe in the possibility 
of perfect joy in Christ. The hardened criminal 
did not believe in the good will and loving heart 
of the compassionate King. He heard Him cry- 
ing without: "Behold the Lamb of God which 



THE MATCHLESS VISITOR. 



99 



taketh away the sins of the world." u Look to 
Me and be ye saved." "Come unto Me, all ye 
that labor and are heavy-laden and I will give 
you rest." "If any man thirst let him come 
to me and drink." "Him that cometh unto Me 
I will in no wise cast out." "Behold I stand at 
the door and knock." So the world, to-day, hears 
but will not believe. 

But Jesus, the great King of whom we have 
been speaking, goes even farther. He institutes 
a peculiar service which appeals to both sight and 
touch, indicative of His atoning love and death. 
As oft as ye shall eat this bread and drink of 
this cup do it in remembrance of Me. Remember 
that I poured out My soul unto death in your be- 
behalf. Remember I freely gave Myself a ransom 
for you. Remember that "I stand at the door 
and knock." But I raise the question: Who is 
this kingly personage at the door? I answer: 

HE IS A MAN OF SORROWS 

Look at His feet and hands; they are scarred 
and torn. Gaze at His side, pierced and divided 
by the cruel soldier's spear. It was this vision 
that prompted Toplady to tune his harp and 
sing: 

"Rock of Ages, cleft for me, 
Let me hide myself in Thee; 
Let the water and the blood, 
From Thy wounded side which flowed; 
Be of sin the perfect cure, 
Save from wrath and make me pure." 



100 



THE MATCHLESS VISITOR, 



Behold His brow; here the unfeeling thorns were 
thrust into His quivering flesh. Catch a glimpse 
of His flowing hair; golden once, it is now white 
as the first beam of morning light. Well might 
Prophet and Apostle be struck by His most glor- 
ious appearance. tl Who is this that cometh from 
Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah?" 

And He answers: ct I am the lowly Nazarene; 
I am the Desire of all nations; I am the miracle- 
worker, the pain-reliever, the disease-banisher, 
the death-destroyer, and the soul-saver; I am He 
whom the Jews conspired against and put to 
death; whom the Romans pierced with nails and 
spear and thorn; whom Joseph and Nicodemus 
buried; whom the grave could not retain; I am 
He of whom Isaiah spake when he said: "He is 
despised and rejected of men; a Man of sorrows; 
and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were 
our faces from Him; He was despised and we 
esteemed Him not. * * * He was wounded 
for our trangressions, He was bruised for our in- 
iquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon 
Him; and with His stripes we are healed." And 
now I am come to you. "Behold I stand at the 
door and knock." 

You are familiar with the name and history of 
Marie Antoinette, whose beauty so bewitched the 
denizens of gay and voluptuous Paris, that the 
highest peers of the realm bore her through the 
streets, dispensing with horses and coachmen en- 



THE MATCHLESS VISITOR. 101 

tirely. She was radiantly beautiful, and extraor- 
dinarily popular. But gaze upon the picture of 
her taken later on. Now her form is bent, her 
face furrowed, her eye dimned, and her hair is 
white and disheveled. What means that throng 
yonder? It is Marie Antoinette and her escort 
again. If you can see through your blinding 
tears, look at her, at the surrounding mob, and 
mark the change. Poor Marie! My heart bleeds 
for thee! Thy chariot is exchanged for a bungling 
sled! Thy courtly admirers are now howling for 
thy blood. Thy destination is not a kingly draw- 
ing-room, but a ghastly place of execution. Thou 
art as pure and innocent as the last sigh of the 
last rose of summer and yet thy sun must set in 
blood. 

But there is One infinitely more lovely than 
Marie Antoinette. Chief among ten thousand; wor- 
shipped by all the hierarchy of heaven; serenaded 
by multitudes of minstrels from the Court of the 
King of Kings; the Lily of the Valley, and the 
Rose of Sharon fair; the bright and morning 
Star, glittering in the bosom of the World's dark- 
est night; the Forgiver, Redeemer, Sanctifier and 
Glorifier — once beaten, bruised, broken, buried — 
but now risen and enthroned high over all, — today 
He comes to befriend and to save you. And 
pleading at the entrance of your soul He cries: 



102 



THE MATCHLESS VISITOR 



"Behold I stand at the door and knock." But 
again: He stands at 

THY DOOK. 

Here His attitude is most significant. There 
are a great many pictures in the Bible where 
Jesus is the central character; but none in which 
His personal interest in my welfare is quite so 
clearly and forcefully depicted as here. He stands 
at my door, at thy door, and knocks. 

We are in peril of losing much of the blessed- 
ness of His visit, because He visits others also. 
Things, as tLgsy become common, are apt to de- 
cline in our estimation. Who stops to go into 
raptures over sunlight and warmth? And yet they 
are of superlative value. Who goes into ecstasies 
over the endless successions of the seasons? Every 
sense is quickened and delighted, but we rarely 
stop to think or be grateful: they are so common. 
Make diamonds as plentiful as brick-dust, and 
they will be as cheap as brick-dust. In the days 
of Solomon, we are told that gold became as plen- 
tiful at Jerusalem as cobble-stones and — as cheap. 

So the commonness of sin, blunts our moral 
susceptibility. This is the meaning of being led 
into temptation. We are led by the herd. We 
follow the crowd. We do many things question- 
able, if not positively sinful, because they are 
commonly done. The murderous Jews said: "Let 
His blood be upon us and our children." But in 
all the reckless, venomous rabble, there w T as not 



THE MATCHLESS VISITOR. 



103 



one brave enough to say: Let His blood be upon 
me and my children. From this the pagans, 
Herod and Pilate recoiled. "I wash my hands of 
the blood of this innocent man/' said Pilate. 

We need, in all of our relations with the Mas- 
ter, to remember that he is personal, as well as 
universal. Though he calls all mankind at a sin- 
gle stroke of tongue or pen, He also says: u Tfiou 
art the man." The singular is always conjoined 
with the plural. "I" and "me" keep step with 
every "we" and "them." He is the Saviour of 
the world; but he is also my personal, individual 
Saviour. On the Cross He died tor all mankind; 
but none the less for me. In the morning He 
walks forth from the tomb, the first -fruits of the 
resurrection, my resurrection included. 

So in our text I am in the presence of fche King 
— alone. He is at my door, as though mine were 
the only door in the universe. He knocks; He 
begs admission. Like a mendicant He stands. He 
does not presume to sit down in our presence. He 
treats us as though we were kings and He were a 
pensioner upon our bounty. He patiently waits for 
an opportunity to speak to me; I leave him without. 
Solomon represents Him lingering at the door 
until His hair is dripping with midnight dew — 
and still He waits. 

Why is he treated thus? Because he would 
revolutionize our sinful lives; He would blight 
unholy hopes, ambitions, and aspirations; He 



104 



THE MATCHLESS VISITOR. 



would drive a flaming plow-share through cher- 
ished fields which we have cultivated, with great- 
est assiduity for years. Ah, if we only would but 
let him have the right of way, not only at the 
door, but also behind the veil, how much better 
it would be for us. How much of sorrow would 
He dismiss; how much joy and gladness dispense. 

Many in this city went to bed last night with 
heavy hearts. Appetite has gained the mastery 
for a whole week; health has been undermined; 
money has been spirited away. They had resolved 
to save something for the father and mother, out 
in the country, or down in some other State, to 
help pay off the mortgage and save the old ances 
tral homestead; but wine, women and tobacco, 
have consumed everything, down to the last 
penny. Ah. how it comes home to the poor fellow 
dow. I promised father; believing in me, he 
promised others; time is up, and I must disgrace 
myself, and bring a double reproach upon my 
father — reproach for not meeting his promise; re- 
proach for having so dissolute a son. But I was 
swept away by the world, the flesh, and the devil. 
How much better it would have been for that 
young man, the last morning at home when kneel- 
ing by mother at the old family altar, to have 
thrown open the door of his heart and let King 
Jesus come in as Lord and Master. Then would 
he have had a perpetual triumph over ail things 
evil. 



THE MATCHLESS VISITOR. 



105 



I recall a gentlemen who resided at Houlton, 
Maine, during my pastorate there. He came of 
an excellent family; he was the head of an excel- 
lent family. But he fell into grievous sins that 
were hunting him down. Exposure was inevitable. 
He could not bear to break the sad intelligence to 
his family, so he fled to the inebriating bowl. One 
December night, in a drunken stupor, unable to 
get into the house, both hands were so frozen that 
amputation was necessary. Moral and spiritual 
recovery followed. Standing up before his friends 
he held up his stubs of arms, and said: Jesus was 
willing to take him as he was and that he had at 
last surrendered to Him. I could not keep from 
saying to myself: Oh foolish brother, Jesus was 
just as willing to take you before your awful 
calamity. O that you had opened the door then 
and let Him in, how much of shame and suffering 
you would have averted. 

HOW SIGNIFICANT HIS POSTURE. 

"Behold, I stand at the door and knock." He 
does not sit down. He gives no assurance of 
remaining. He is ready, to go. Sooner or later. 
He will go. And when he does go, He will write 
over our doors these words, "Leave him alone; he 
is joined to his idols." He would rather entertain 
my enemy. He is happier when with those who 
conspire against Me, and put Me to open shame. 
He prefers the unclean, and the unhallowed. Let 
him alone. Let him alone. I have knocked at 



106 



THE MATCHLESS VISITOR. 



his door a thousand times; for years I have be- 
sought and plead; that is sufficient. My spirit shall 
riot always strive with man. Let him alone. Shall 
you allow Jesus to go away and leave your soul 
unsaved? 

But you say: He is so earnest and anxious. I 
reply: Yes; but His Spirit will not always strive. 
His sense of propriety is most acute. His sense 
of justice, perfect. His honor, dignity and majesty 
must be maintained. Every soul will at last, assert 
itself; how much more will the King of Kings 
finally assert Himself. 

Christ is today knocking at the door of your 
heart. "Behold I stand at the door and knock." 
How does he knock? By means of His Word, His 
Church, His ministry, His providences, His Holy 
Spirit. The law of love, warm as the tropical sun, 
fragrant as East Indian roses and spices, sweet as 
the dew that distills on the lip of love, and all- 
pervasive as ether is used m winning men to 
open their heart's door and extending hospitality 
to the Master, Especially is love divinely winsome 
when touched by the frost of some bereavement, 
or by some midnight calamity. Why did you 
stop this morning when getting ready for church, 
and muse, and dream of heaven, and think of 
those who had ascended "the steps of light?" 
Why did you so tremble when you opened the 
lower bureau-drawer? What caused you to turn 
so pale when rumaging in the wardrobe? You 



THE MATCHLESS VISITOR. 



107 



came across a tiny shoe, a little garment, a bit of 
ribbon, a doll, some trifling plaything, and your 
mind thronged with a thousand memories. The 
harp of your soul could only wail, and in your 
bitterness you cried: 

'The tender grace of a day that is dead 
Can never come back to me." 

"And the stately ship sails on, 
To it's haven under the hill, 
But O for the touch of a vanished hand, 
And the sound of a voice that is still. 

Christ was using those instrumentalities to arrest 
your attention. He was ringing your door-belL 
He was using your door-knocker. He was saying: 
u Behold I stand at the door and knock." 

In one of my appointments I found a beautiful 
family of wealth and position, but living without 
God and without hope — father and mother, and 
five children. By and by, however, their daughter 
Hattie began coming to Sunday-School, and, at 
last, her mother and all her sisters and brothers. 
One day the Superintendent said to me: 4 'Do you 
know Hattie Merritt* She is a beautiful girl. And 
what a lovely disposition she has; everybody loves 
her; there is not a person in school but would 
die for her. Next Sunday I am going to have her 
recite a piece." I was present the following Sun- 
day and remember the fair, sweet face, the mod 
est manner and the ringing voice, I now recall 
the last stanza of her little recitation: 



THE MATCHLESS VISITOR. 



108 



'I'm a little pilgrim and a stranger here, 
Though the world is pleasant, sin is always near; 
Mine's a better country, where there is no sin, — 
Where the tones of sorrow never enter in ' 

Ah! Jesus was going to ring a bell in that home 
that would echo in those worldly hearts forever — 
it was when Hattie suddenly sickened and died. 
The house was thronged. Jesus was knocking at 
innumerable doors, throughout the Church, the 
Sunday-School and the community. The family 
gathered around the bed, but Jesus was in their 
midst, knocking, knocking. At last the father, 
with breaking heart and streaming eyes exclaimed: 
"Oh Hattie we will follow thee, my darling child, 
and one day meet thee in heaven." The whole 
family repeated the promise and falling on their 
knees said: u O Lord Jesus come in, come in." 

Do you charge God with cruelty? In what way? 
Was it cruel to take the darling child up out of 
sin, sorrow and suffering, into the land of unend- 
ing glory and bliss? Was it cruel to save a whole 
family from death, hell and the grave? The very 
anguish of bereavement, under the sanctifying 
grace of God, became a blessing — and a whole 
family was saved. 

'Behold I stand at the door and knock." 

WHAT IS OUR DUTY ? 

Why, to instantly fling the door wide open and 
say: "Come in King Jesus, come in, Thou art 
welcome to our richest and our best." 



THE MATCHLESS VISITOR. 



109 



He will never compel you to admit Him. No 
soul is ever saved by coercion. Compulsory love 
is but hatred turned inside out. He will never be 
an unwelcome guest. 

Nor will he come in, however urgent your in- 
vitation, unless the surroundings and associations 
are agreeable. If you imagine you can entertain 
Him at the same board, with guests that are im- 
moral, drunken, profane, unclean, licentious and 
adulterous you are greatly mistaken. Did He not 
drive the avaricious money-changers out of the 
temple? Did He not declare that prayer and holi- 
ness become His house? Are not holiness and 
cleanliness insisted upon, from first to last? Oh if 
you would have Him as your guest, you must have 
clean hands, pure hearts, and guests who are His 
loyal subjects. 

I WILL SUP WITH YOU. 

He promises to come not simply as a caller, but 
as a guest — a permanent guest. 

I have read of a Bishop in the early Roman 
Church who spent all his time among the poor, 
and who was often seen, with Bible and basket, 
among the huts of the humble mountaineers far 
up the Alps, ministering to their needs, and being 
entertained by them. So the great Bishop of our 
souls clambers over all the mountains of a cruel 
world's indifference and infidelity, and knocks at 
our doors, laden with blessings, and craving our 
hospitality. He asks no great preparation; He 



110 



THE MATCHLESS VISITOR. 



makes no irksome requirements; He demands no 
extravagant display — only to be admitted. Oh my 
brother admit Him now. He will cleanse your 
heart. He will purify your soul. He will clarify 
and illuminate your conscience. He will give you 
a light that shines at midnight, as brightly as at 
noonday. He will attune your life to concert 
pitch. He will usher in a new era of untold 
blessedness. 

"Let not conscience make you linger, 
Nor of fitness fondly dream; 
All the fitness He requireth 
Is to feel your need of Him." 
♦ * * * 

"Come, ye weary, heavy-laden 

Bruised and mangled by the fall; 
If you tarry till you're "better. 
You will never come at all; 
Not the righteous,— 
Sinners, Jesus came to call." 

But not only will He "pardon, cleanse, relieve" 
the hospitable heart, but He will also make it a co- 
heir with Himself in all the riches and estates and 
glories of the Heavenly Father. A man, known 
to be fabulously rich, comes to my door and 
proffers to make me an equal partner in a business, 
without any investment on my part, except my 
love and fellowship, which will yield me a million 
of dollars per annum. ^Wonderful," you exclaim. 
"Of course you accept," comes from every heart. 
"Oh how I wish some one would make such an 



THE MATCHLESS VISITOR. 



Ill 



offer to me/ 1 is the exclamation of many. Ah! 
poor, benighted souls! Jesus stands at the door — 
your door — now. He offers to enter into an infi- 
nitely more glorious partnership with you, than the 
one I named. Will you accept Him? 

"But I am a great sinner," you are saying to 
yourself True! But hear, again, the voice of 
Jesus: "I will cleanse thee; I will make thee a 
new creature; I will enlighten thee; 1 have already 
redeemed thee; I will guide you into all truth, 
wisdom and blessedness; I will shi.re with you 
My home; I will present you to My Father who 
will accept you for My sake, for your own sake, and 
because you love Me; all heaven and all eternity 
shall be yours." Sinner what answer will you 
make? 

u But I want to settle a few questions before I 
open my heart to Him," you say. Oh selfish, 
narrow, temporizing soul, how small you must 
appear in heaven's sight, how unworthy of salva- 
tion and all that Jesus has done, and promises to 
do for you, in the sight of the angels. When your 
soul was in jeopardy and under condemnation, 
Jesus did not stop to settle questions. If He had, 
you would have been in hell long ago. No! No! 
He flew to your relief on wings of lightning. 

Do you see that ship on fire? The crew and 
passengers look wildly and cry frantically for 
deliverance. A ship of the same line suddenly 
appears but the flames are so terrible, the winds 



112 



THE MATCHLE.S6 VISITOR. 



so wild and sea so high they fear to draw up 
along-side, and calculating the chances, let the 
ship go down with all its precious freight, in 
treasure and in human life. They had 4 'a few 
questions to settle." 

But when Jesus saw us going down, He flung 
Himself into the thickest of our peril. Again and 
again He went down. "My soul is exceeding 
sorrowful, even unto death," was one of the cries 
wrenched from His soul. "O My Father, if it be 
possible, let this cup pass from Me, nevertheless 
not as I will but as Thou wilt," was another And 
on the great day of days, He was so crushed and 
oppressed He cried: 4w My God, My God, why 
hast Thou forsaken Me?" He came forth from 
our recovery and redemption, covered with scars 
and stained with blood. Oh my brother, accept 
Him to-day. Throw open your heart and make 
Him an honored guest. Such an opportunity may 
never come to you again. 

"Admit Him e'er His anger burn, 
His feet departed ne'er return, 
Admit Him or the hour's at hand 
You'll at His door rejected stand/' 



MOSES' CHOICE. 



Text: By faith Moses, when he was come to years, 
refused to be called the so?i of Pharaoh? s daughter; 
choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of 
God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; 
esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than 
the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the 
recompense of the reward, Hebrews xi: 24-26 



This chapter has been well-called "The roll call 
of heroes." Here is, indeed, a magnificent array 
of knights of the golden heart and of the unstained 
and unblemished hand. The nations of Europe 
and the Orient, have their books of peers, wherein 
are carefully kept the full names and pedigrees of 
their noblemen of every rank. But where will 
you find another peerage book, like that in the 
Eleventh of Hebrews? u As one star differeth from 
another star in glory," and one flower excelleth 
all the rest, so here is a catalogue of heroes and 
saints — heaven's peerage-book — that pales all 
others into insignificance as the equatorial sun out- 
shines the wandering and benighted fire-fly. And, 
wonderful to tell, challenging our devoutest cre- 
dulity, they belong to no one nation but are the 
heritage of the whole world. Modern Italy writes 



114 



MOSES' CHOICE. 



the names of Garibaldi and Victor Emmanuel, Ger- 
many the names of William I and Frederick III, 
England of Nelson and of Wellington, and each 
exclaims: "These are our heroes." But in what 
book of earthly peers are the names of Abraham. 
Isaac, Jacob, Samuel, Gideon and David written? 
What republic, monarchy or principality claims 
them as its heroes, and with these names in- 
scribed on their banners, go forth to the conquest 
of the world? Which nation in the Orient or the 
Occident I 

Our text introduces us to one of the grandest 
and greatest purely human characters in the his- 
tory of the world. David could, perhaps, sing 
more sweetly than he; Isaiah had a clearer pro- 
phetic vision; Ezekiel a poetic and majestic im- 
agery of whom Dante and Milton are but dim 
and inarticulate reminders; Peter, James and 
John each in some one respect, perhaps, was greater 
than Moses. But Moses towers, like the statuary 
and architecture of Angelo and Raphael, great in 
every respect. We feel it is no exaggeration to 
place him among the highest. 

'This was the bravest warrior 

That ever buckled sword, 
This the most gifted poet 

That ever breathed a word; 
And never earth's philosopher 

Traced with his golden pen, 
On the deathless page, 
Words half so sage, 

As he wrote down for men/' 



MOSES 1 CHOICE. 



115 



But his superlative greatness lies not in his 
genius but in his character. He gained access 
into the pantheon of immortals, not so much by 
what he did, as by what he was. He was truly 
well-born; he was brought up in a brilliant court, 
surrounded by sages, statesmen and philosophers; 
he was the idolized protege of the greatest mon- 
arch and princess on earth; he was the student, the 
pride, the rival of Egypt's most venerated teach- 
ers; according to flawlinson he was the Marl- 
borough of Egyptian arms — still he is most known 
and loved by the great decision he made. Fawned 
upon by the crown-head, kissed and caressed by 
the princess, courted by the populace, within reach 
of the sceptre and but a short and easy step from 
the throne, for conscience sake he stepped aside and 
resigned it all. 

'The son of Pharaoh's daughter rides, 

With royal guards attending; 
And throngs admiring follow him, 

While shouts the air are rending. 
And yet he wears no haughty air: 

I see a shade* of sadness 
O'erhang his fair and manly brow, 

"Mid Egypt's pomp and gladness. 

"In court and street his praise is heard, 

From market-place to palace; 
And vulgar eyes his beauty quaff 

As from a charmed chalice. 
And music floats upon the air, 

Soft as the breath of roses; 
And garlands strew his royal path 

Till night the pageant closes. 



116 



MOSES 5 CHOICE. 



"O Hebrew prince! favored one 

In thy proud chariot sitting, 
Sweet dreams of other years I know 

Before thine eyes are flitting; 
And in the silence of thy heart 

Are thoughts of future duty ; 
'Tis life's grand struggle moving there 

That shades thy brow of beauty. 

"And thus I hear thy secret soul 

Within thy chambers lonely, 
Pour out its low and sad regrets 

Where God can listen only. 
'Alas! why should I dream away 

My years in wealth and pleasure; 
My brethren groan in bondage sore, 

And sorrows without measure. 

"I hear the voice of God in dreams; 

And shall I fear the trial? 
What though a crown awaits my brow, 

God hears my heart's denial. 
This is the price of Israel's peace, 

And if their chains be broken, 
My hand must surely lead them out; 

God waits; the word is spoken. 

"I go; ye gilded halls, farewell! 

Farewell. O palace bowers! 
Ye, princes, brothers whom I love 

In Egypt's stately towers! 

Pharaoh's daughter, fare you well! 
Your son, no more forever! 

The loving ties of years I break, 
These royal bonds I sever. 

"Farewell, ye dreams of fame and power! 
Ye festal scenes alluring! 

1 turn through sorrow's rugged road 
To riches more enduring: 

Through desert wastes my paths may lie, 
But they shall lead to glory; 

My crown is there a fadeless one, 
Unknown in Egypt's story/" 



MOSES' CHOICE. 



117 



This single act gave tone and symmetry to 
Moses' life. It was the decisive act that shaped 
his whole career, and decided his temporal and 
eternal destiny. It was a wonderful act; one of 
those climacteric acts that startle at first, and thrill 
forever. Consider 

I. 

THE DATE OF THE DECISION. 

There came a time with Pharaoh when he must 
know the mind and heart of his precocious Hebrew 
protege. Says the dusky almond-eyed sovereign: 
"Possibly we are putting power and authority into 
this Hebrew's hands to be used in our destruction. 
He is the son of Jochebed. The blood of Levi 
flows in his veins. His mother has his ear and 
heart, and she would rather die than surrender her 
ancestral faith. He is proud of his peculiar people 
and especially of their venerated trio, Abraham, 
Isaac and Jacob. What if we are preparing this 
giant to accomplish our overthrow and lead his 
people to traditional victory? Will he accept the 
crown at my decease, and be true to Egypt and 
the Egyptians; or will he at last throw off all 
allegiance and identify himself with the accursed 
race of his mother? 55 

A crisis was arranged. Moses must publicly 
take a stand. It must be so clear, definite and 
conclusive as to settle the question of his allegiance, 
to the one or the other, for all time to come. Sus- 
picion that he was an ardent Israelite at heart, had 



118 



MOSES' CHOICE. 



gone abroad. It must be once for all denied or 
affirmed. How one trembles at the thought of 
such a day! I see Moses, at twilight, climbing to 
the summit of a high tower overlooking the impe- 
rial city. Far to the south rise the pyramids- — 
solemn, silent, majestic. The river Nile, now 
fringed with worshippers, flows like a golden 
ribbon on to the sea. The sun, aweary with its 
long pilgrimage, drops into the bosom of the 
night, and the din of hurrying foot and hoof, dies 
away in the gathering darkness. Moses is on 
the Mount of Temptation. Satan says: "Look 
away to every point of the compass. Behold the 
splendor of this wonderful empire. But fall down 
and worship me, or if you prefer worship yourself, 
and all shall be thine." 

Moses felt it all. A crown was within his reach, 
but it was identified with a false religion, and 
idolatrous nation and the cruel enslavement of his 
own people — even of his own mother. Compromise 
would be impossible. To attempt the reconcilia- 
tion of Hebrews and Egyptians would be chimerical. 
To try to ameliorate the condition of his down- 
trodden race, suicidal. As the Sovereign he would 
have to be untrue to himself, his people, and his 
God. To decline the throne and crown, would 
inevitably lead to poverty, exile, and possibly 
death. Oh! Moses, marvelous was thy choice! 

Let us emulate his example. Each day we must 
decide for or against God; each day we do decide 



MOSES' CHOICE. 



119 



for or against Christ. Sometimes the decision is 
in the realm of thought, sometimes in the sphere 
of the affections, sometimes, at the family hearth- 
stone, again in the social circle, and not unfre- 
quently in the arena of citizenship. We can no 
more compromise than Moses could. Every imag- 
ination of the mind, every, emotion of the heart, 
every word of the mouth, every act of the hand — 
every deed in the home, in society, in the church, 
at the ballot-box or in public office — is absolutely 
for or against God. But again, observe 

II 

WHAT MOSES DECLINED. 

Character is costly; so are diamonds. Moses' 
decision cost him something. In order to be true 
to self and God he had to resign 

1. The wealth of the world. Wealth is a most 
alluring siren. How men pursue it. There's 
not a railroad or railway train, there's not a 
steamer on the ocean, there's not a factory, foun- 
dry, or farm, there's not a store, or shop, or office but 
had its origin in a desire to accumulate wealth. 
The golden calf has more worshippers than the 
divine Christ,. Mighty as are steam and dynamite 
and electricity, they are but hobbling mendicants 
compared with the desire for money. This in- 
satiate thirst for money is Pandora's box out of 
which flies, when Avarice opens the door, all man- 
ner of evil. 

You have read of the worldly young man whom 



120 



MOSES' CHOICE. 



Jesus loved. He cried, with enthusiasm, u Good 
Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life." 
Upon bended knee he awaited the all-important 
answer. But when the conditions included pov- 
erty he arose, unlike Moses, refused to make the 
sacrifice and went away heavy-hearted. 1 have 
always pitied him. Poor fellow! He was so fettered 
with golden links, he could not reach out after 
eternal life. Not indeed, that poverty is an essen- 
tial to salvation, any more than calomel and ipecac- 
are essential to good health. Sometimes all three 
are necessary, but not as a rule. 

But Moses rose above all the seductions of 
wealth. His soul was greater than all the gold 
mines and diamond-fields of earth. Only the 
righteous are rich. Without God's favor the mil- 
lionaire is a pauper. Like some colossal Jupiter 
he triumphed over the avaricious Dragon and de- 
nying himself momentary wealth, became eternally 
rich. But who is there among us able to make 
the decision Moses made? He resigned the wealth 
of the world. 

2. He declined honor and applause. Tell it in 
hell among the proud ambitious angels! Tell it 
to the dwellers in the intermediate world, who 
bartered their souls for an hour's applause! Tell 
it among the living to -day who pant for the gilded 
gew-gaws of phosphorescent notoriety. Moses 
deliberately declined the loftiest honor this world 
could bestow. Conscious of the opportunity, 



MOSES' CHOICE. 



121 



human in every instinct, rightly reckoning every 
consideration with emphasis unmistakable, he said: 
"No! Never!! Never!!!' 5 

3. He declined public favor and respect. Ridi- 
cule and disrespect are most trying to all highly 
organized men. To be called a fool, by idiots; to 
be dubbed a knave, by scoundrels; to be charged 
with treason, by those who are themselves traitors; 
to be hooted at by a vermin-infested mob, is to a 
noble spirit, most galling. 

No true man will ever maltreat another for his 
conscientious convictions. A noble man will 
honor another's heart-felt principles, though he 
deems them thoroughly fallacious. When Bishop 
Taylor's company of missionaries were on the 
wharf in New York, ready to sail for the wilds of 
Africa, a telegram was handed to Miss Meyer. It 
read as follows: "Father dropped dead this morn- 
ing. Your Sister." She stopped a moment and 
then calmly said: "I have made every plan in 
prayer. I mast go. Farewell to all," and went 
abroad. A little more than a year ago she joined 
her father in a better land. A New York Tribune 
reporter who was present said: U I have no settled 
convictions in reference to Missions or Mr. Tay^ 
lors work, but I honor such conviction in others." 

4. He refused exemption from his people woes. 
As such,he stands as a monument of unselfishness. 
History records a dreadful pestilence. It was 
something new in the realm of disease and there 



122 



MOSES 5 CHOICE. 



was no pathology applicable. So dreadful were 
its ravages and so unavailing every effort to arrest 
it, medical men agreed that the only hope was in 
an autopsy. But who should perform the opera- 
tion. Death would inevitably ensue. At last a 
venerable old man arose and said: U I have de- 
voted my whole life to my profession, and for the 
relief of suffering humanity. To-morrow morning 
I undertake the task." The night was spent in 
preparation and prayer. The morning came and 
bidding his friends good bye, he entered the 
chamber of death. Carefully he performed the 
autopsy, noting every minute discovery and then 
consigning his memoranda to ajar of disinfectants 
awaited, calmly, the approach of death, which 
came a little later on. 

So the scourge of slavery and of despotism 
was sweeping Israel away arid Moses said: "God 
forgive me for my long years of unconcern and 
listlessness. Let me, in some measure, repay that 
merciful Providence that delivered me from the 
iron jaws of death and lifted me up to the velvet 
bosom of sweet and winsome love. Let me now 
though the benedictions of forty summers have 
already been crowded upon me, become identified 
with God's people and if possible do something 
for them. Let me do some humble thing that at 
the last I may stand with Him who cometh from 
Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah. That 
when Shiloh comes I may not be confounded, but 



MOSES' CHOICE. 



123 



may rejoice in His unspeakable and everlasting 
glory." 

Here his horizon enlarges. He looks beyond 
the crumbling dynasties of a fleeting world, be- 
yond the petty triumphs of men, beyond the gray 
summits that separate time from eternity, and with 
face toward the home of his mother, exclaims: 
"Whither thou goest I will go; and where thou 
loclgest I will lodge: thy people shall be my peo- 
ple, and thy God my God: where thou diest, I 
will die, and there will I be buried: the Lord do 
so to me, and more also, if aught but death part 
thee and me. "I would rather be the least of 
them who are the Lord's alone, than wear a royal 
diadem and sit upon a throne." 

Oh for more men like Moses! We too are com- 
passed about with golden calves and seducing 
Delilahs. Within us, as in Moses, are spirits that 
cry out after those things that decay and destroy. 
They are evil spirits. Like those possessed by the 
man of Gadara they rend us if we say no. And 
yet there are saints of God as noble and decided, 
as pure and unselfish as Moses was. 1 heard Mr. 
Beecher once say: u Every man has his price." 
The remark was flippant and unworthy of tho 
world's greatest preacher. There are millions 
whom ten thousand Egypts could not buy. Our 
Sunday Schools swarm with children as unswerv- 
ing from truth purity and equity as the greatest 
of the pagan stoics. You have heard of poor 



124 



MOSES' CHOICE. 



black Toby guarding his master's boots at Harris- 
on's Landing and dying in their defense. How 
much more will the princes and princesses royal 
of heaven, rather lay down their lives than forfeit 
the least iota of virtue and of honor. 

I remember a young convert of mine, by the 
grace of God. saved from the inebriating cup. 
One day he came to my study and said: "I am in 
trouble." "Ah." said I, ''what's the matter!" "I 
am out of work and money." was his answer, 
"and the only thing I can get to do is to tend bar 
in a saloon." "And you are tempted to do it? 53 I 
said in astonishment. "Well, he replied with 
blushes. *T do not like to be called indolent and 
shiftless — but there! I will never accept such a 
position as that." Nor did he. He would rather 
have died in the street than sell one drop of liquid 
and concentrated death. Honor, integrity, man- 
hood, triumphed. 

Charles Sumner kept Massachusetts voting six 
months and imperiled his whole future career, 
when Daniel Webster died and another United 
States Senator must be elected, when one word of 
concession would have resulted in his election on 
the first ballot. But Charles Sumner would have 
allowed Charon to ferry the whole Government 
across the turbid Styx, before he would have 
polluted principle. 

But again: I observe. 



MOSES' CHOICE. 



125 



III 

THE END, NOT THE BEGINNING, SHOULD DECIDE OUR 
CHOICES. 

Shakespere has a play entitled "All's Well That 
Ends Well." Spurgeon says: "The end crowns 
all." In the 39th Psalm David exclaims: "Lord 
make me to know mine end, and the measure of 
my days, what it is." Had yon asked Moses why 
he refused Egypt's crown and diadem he would 
probably have replied: "Because 1 have respect 
unto the recompense of the reward, I endure as 
seeing Him who is invisible." This is the sub- 
limest wisdom: forecasting effects, looking from 
spring-time to autumn over the shoulder of sum- 
mer, faith running on fleet foot to the consumma- 
tion of all things. 

I want to know, now, what will be the outcome 
of every act when life's frail flickering candle is 
extinguished, when earth's tottering, trembling 
staff is broken in fragments, and the universe is 
rolling away forever. If life and destiny were 
questions of four-and-twenty hours, exact conclu- 
sions, if they did not interfere with present pleas- 
ure and advantage, would be immaterial. But 
life and destinv are questions of judgment, of 
retribution and reward, of immeasurable future, 
of settlement of immortal crisis upon bases of end- 
less righteousness. He, therefore, is a fool who 
reckons only by months and years and closes his 
eyes upon infinities and eternities. 



126 



MOSES' CHOICE. 



So Moses soliloquizes: u At present it would 
be delightful to be recognized in the court cf 
Pharaoh as the Prince-Royal; to ride in state and 
receive the homage of an empire; to walk these 
palaces and sit on high and garnished thrones — 
this would be delightful now. But what of the 
outcome? I should lose my sou].'* 'What shall a 
man give in exchange for his soul? 5 I cannot have 
a second soul. If I lose this soul I lose everything. 
The price is too great. Do not imagine, my beau- 
tiful, generous, sympathetic foster-mother, that I 
am renouncing everything without a recompense. 
Oh, no! Great is your mistake if you infer that 1 
am abandoning your kingdom, your home and 
the warm bosom of your love simply to endure 
poverty, desolation and expatriation. I tell you I 
receive more than I decline. I do not get it now; 
but that is a word that misleads you — "now." 
Mine is a reversionary benefit; a deferred interest. 
It will come by-and-by. And strange, but true, I 
can have it and enjoy it in the best and noblest 
sense before it is technically delivered to me." 

Do not accuse me of speaking in perplexing 
enigmas. These saints of God well know my 
meaning. In a spiritual and most blissful sense 
we are now in heaven. How often do we defraud 
ourselves, or permit the devil to defraud us, by 
thinking heaven is far away. Oh no, beloved. 
Be not cheated. Be not deceived or robbed. 
Heaven is within you no%o\ the light and love of 



MOSES' CHOICE. 



127 



heaven irradiate your heart, your intellect, your 
conscience, and glorify your present relationship 
to the triune God. To be in Christ is to be 
heavenly and in heaven. We are on earth, yet in 
heaven; we are in heaven, yet on earth. As Paul 
says, one moment ye are in Christ, and then the 
very next, dec] ares that Christ is in us. Why defer 
the joys of heaven when we can begin them here 
and now? 

Moses endured as seeing him who is invisible: 
Him who looks down from every cloud, glitters in 
every star, breathes in every wind, over-rules all 
the events in every life, reads our thoughts and 
tests the reins of our hearts. "Thou God seest 
me." He is a God nigh at hand, and not afar off 
His eyes run to and fro throughout the whole 
earth. He shows himself omnipotent in behalf 
of those who put their trust in Him. Do not 
blindly, by tampering with the strange fires of 
human sophistry, put God away from you, but 
enter into closer fellowship with Him by loving 
fervent childlike faith. 

A few remarks now and I close: 

First: Such a decision as Moses made identifies 
one with God's redeemed and triumphant hosts. 
Man is like a ship. Without an anchor he drifts 
and is at the mercy of every influence, however 
malign. He is like a car without a brake at the 
top of a heavy grade. Once started down he 
dashes on to destruction. He is like the first 



128 



MOSES' CHOICE. 



trickling waters that creep through the dam that 
holds back a mighty flood. If not arrested, sooner 
or later, he works awful havoc. Voltaire, it is 
said, committed an infidel poem to memory when 
five years of age, and it decided his destiny. 
David Hume, in sport, debated in a society 
against Christianity until he undermined and 
destroyed his own soul. The sailor "spins his 
yarn" until it passes current over the counter of 
his own soul. We often make the rope that stran- 
gles us unto death. Blessed is the boy or girl, the 
man or woman, who anchors early in the harbor 
of God's grace. 

4i I have read somewhere of an eagle in the 
mountains. Soaring with steady wing, he saw far 
below the grand scenes of an American landscape. 
As he rose higher toward the blue heavens his keen 
eye saw floating on the distant river, whose margin 
was already frost-bound, the carcass of a huge 
buffalo. He paused in his upward flight, and 
descended to revel in the great mass of corruption. 
He was borne, on the floating carcass, gently 
down toward the roaring rapids below. Gorged 
with his foul meal, with drooping wing and dor- 
mant energies he fell asleep in a bed of oozing 
putrefaction. The blood, stiffened by the frost, 
bound his feet to the remains of the carcass, and 
downward was he borne until the roar of the 
cataract thundered in his ear. Then he struggled 
for liberty. But his powers had been so enfeebled 



MOSES' CHOICE. 



129 



with satiety, his feet so firmly bound by the frozen 
blood and corruption, and his time was now so 
short, escape was impossible. He screamed, he 
made frantic efforts to throw oft' his horrid com- 
panion; he looked up to the blue heavens he had 
abandoned. But it was too late now. Over the 
rapids he was hurled, into the boiling cataract, 
and was dashed to destruction on the rocks 
beneath." 

How many, like the eagle, leave the blue 
heavens, the glittering stars and the glorious sun, 
for the sin-darkened regions of death. Unlike 
Moses they choose the things that perish. They 
follow the leadings of depraved appetites. They 
wallow in the mire of sensuality. They make no 
high and holy decisions. They seek no better 
country. They seek not Him who is the fairest, 
the One altogether lovely! They are wretched in 
time. They are damned in eternity. 

Second: This is a personal matter. "Ah!" 
say men to-day, ' if others would bat make 
this high and holy decision, come out from all the 
courts of Pharaoh, and identify themselves with 
God's people, then I would too. But people of 
social rank, of wealth, and of political, artistic 
and literary note, refuse and so I too will hold 
myself aloof. 

What if Moses had reasoned thus? Where would 
be his splendid biography, his entombment in the 
hearts of ail men, his world-wide and age-long 



130 



MOSES' CHOICE. 



love and veneration? He would have died, per- 
haps umnourned, been buried without hope, with 
pagan rites and in a strange land. JS T o angel 
escort would have swept Moab in quest of him; 
there would have been no dispute over his body. 

Just before Mr. Lincoln's tragic death, the late 
Joshua Fry Speed entered his room and found 
him intently reading his Bible. u Glad to see you 
so profitably engaged/ 5 said Mr. Speed. "Yes, 
I am profitably engaged/' replied Mr. Lincoln 
with deep and solemn emphasis. "Well, 55 rejoined 
Speed, "if you have recovered from your skepti- 
cism, I have not. Then, looking with wistful and 
tender solicitude into Speed's face and placing his 
hand on his shoulder. Lincoln slowly said: u You 
are wrong, Speed. Take all of this book upon 
reason that you can, and the balance upon faith, 
and you will live and die a happier and better 
man.'" 

The strange and awful providences of those 
eventful years, during which Abraham Lincoln 
stood at the head of a nation which writhed be- 
neath the Judgments of Almighty God, had 
scattered to the winds those questionings and cav- 
ilings with which he had been surrounded in his 
earlier and sunnier years. He had learned that in 
the deep waters of affliction the human soul longs 
for certainties, not doubts; not for the treachery 
of broken reeds but for the sure support of the 
everlasting Rock, He made the searching after 



MOSES* CHOICE. 



131 



wisdom in the Bible, a personal matter. He took 
not the words of others as a finality, but the Word 
of God, We believe he accepted Christ as Lord 
of all, and that the ring of the assassin's revolver 
brought angelic escorts down to bear him to that 
blessed abode, whither Moses had long centuries 
before preceded him. 

If we identify ourselves with the invisible God 
and endure as seeing Him who is invisible we may 
abide the loss of all things visible, for the things 
which are seen are temporal, but the things which 
are not seen are eternal. Glorious indeed was the 
choice of Moses! 

"And had he not high honor? 

The hillside for his pall, 
To lie in st^te while angeis wait, 

With stars for tapers tall;. 
The dark rock pines like tossing plumes 

Over his bier to wave. 
And God's own hand 
In that lonely land 

To lay him in his grave. 

"In that deep grave without a name, 

Whence his uncoffined clay 
Shall break again — most wondrous thought! 

Before the Judgment day; 
And stand, with glory wrapt around, 

On the hills he never trod. 
And speak of the strife 
That won our life 

Through Christ the Incarnate God. 5 ' 



THE GREAT DECISION. 



Text : Choose ye this day ichom ye will serve, 
Joshua xxiv : 15. 



The ruling passion of life often predominates at 
death. Then men's real selves are seen in clear 
and striking outlines. When all the restrictions 
of law and social order and self-interest are re- 
moved, man speaks without reserve, out of the 
depths of his heart. If he has been a miser, you 
will find him mentally running his fingers through 
the pile of golden nuggets and wishing they were 
larger and more numerous. If the dying man be 
a stage driver, reckless for years on the mountain 
slopes, you will find his foot moving nervously for 
the brake. A railroad conductor mortally wounded 
lifts himself upon his elbow and exclaiming: u Set 
the signal, there is another train coming," and 
then, drops back dead. So with the builder, sculp- 
tor, painter, musician, statesman, ruler — the whole 
life seems to crowd into a few moments, waiting 
in the ante-chamber of an august and unknown 
eternity. 

Prof. Samuel F. B. Morse, the electrician, hav- 
ing spanned and belted the world with wires, had 
a battery placed in his chamber so that his dying 



THE GREAT DECISION. 



133 



moments might be engaged and cheered by send- 
ing and receiving messages to and from those all 
over the world who held him in tender and affec- 
tionate veneration. He gave up his life-work only 
when he swept back into the bosom of his God. 
And who knows but his Heavenly Father has 
opened up to him a boundless theatre of usefulness 
and delight beyond, giving him the universe for 
his circuit and angels as his assistants. 

Wesley, the father, under God, of our beloved 
Methodism and the greatest executive and organizer 
of modern times, if not of all times, rejoicing in 
the consummation of his life work and in the com- 
pleteness of his own redemption exclaimed: u The 
best of all is, God is with us,' 5 and thus expired. 
The promise of our Saviour, "Lo, I am with you 
alway," was verified. With David, he could say: 
"Yea, though I walk through the valley of the 
shadow of death I will fear no evil: for Thou art 
with me; Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me.'' 

Our text introduces Joshua as a very old man, 
leaning upon his staff, and rapidly blossoming 
into the endless summer. His long day of honor- 
able service was closing with a glorious sunset 
Rich in years, in honors, and eternal hope he was 
soon to be gathered to his fathers. But before 
going he would impart many useful lessons, and 
stir up his people, by earnest and urgent exhorta- 
tions. Leaning upon his staff, bent with the bur- 
dens of over a hundred years, he exhibits in tone, 



134 



THE GREAT DECISION. 



gesture, and sentiment the same Joshua, who in 
his younger years pleaded for the immediate occu- 
pation of Canaan. He was quick and resolute of 
decision, so much so, indeed, that he might well 
have been called Joshua, the Decided. So now, 
in the last act and scene of the wonderful drama 
of his life, he flames forth, with his old-time fervor 
and vehemence, saying: ''Decide! Decide!! Choose 
ye this day whom ye will serve." In view of your 
origin and destiny, the tragic fate of your fathers 
in the wilderness, and the future and eternal wel- 
fare of your children make this all-important de- 
cision, and make it this day. 

And now what lessons may we draw from our 
text and the context? I answer 

I 

THAT EVERY MAN HAS AN ALTERNATIVE. 

There can be no choice without the privilege 
and power of a contrary. A necessary choice is 
no choice at all. As well speak of the freedom of 
slaves. He who chooses from compulsion, or be- 
cause their is no alternative is the victim of neces- 
sity and has made no real choice at all. But our 
text and context indicate that there are two 
masters and two sorts of service, and that the 
people were sufficiently wise and informed to de- 
cide whom they would serve. Hence the great 
successor of Moses, assembled the people and 
talked to them concerning their past history, their 
fathers who fell asleep beyond the Jordan, and the 



THE GREAT DECISION. 



135 



sorrows that came upon them because of their es- 
pousal of idols and of idol worship. He hung 
before them, with skillful hand, the pictures of 
the past constructing a gallery adorned with pic- 
tures of success and triumph at the crossing of the 
Red Sea, the smiting of the rock, the fording of 
the Jordan, the conquest of Jericho, and pos- 
session of Canaan. 

Over against these glowing scenes he placed the 
dark picture of their apostasy and its fearful con 
sequences. Then with the skill of a master, he 
made the appeal: "Choose ye this day whom ye 
will serve," whether the Lord Jehovah, God high 
over all, or senseless stocks and stones. For as 
the fathers wasted away in the wilderness so will 
you perish if you follow the path of disobedience; 
for that path is honey-combed with dangers and 
its end is in the jaws of despair and death But 
if you choose God, and are obedient to Him, you 
will be refreshed and enriched with holiness, heav- 
enly favor and all the fruits of the Spirit. 

But every age and every individual has to make 
this personal all important decision. That ancient 
people and their mighty chieftan have gone to their 
reward. Their decision is made and their eternal 
destiny is unalterably fixed forever. It is now our 
turn, A greater than Joshua commands us here 
and now to decide between God and His service, 
and Satan and his service. We must decide for 
ourselves; we ouselves must abide by the conse- 
quences. 



136 



THE GREAT DECISION. 



Do you tremble at the responsibility thus thrust 
upon you? Well you may; and yet we should rejoice 
in the high honor with which God crowns us. By 
committing such vast and eternal interests to us, 
He declares that we are not senseless machines, 
not the victims of a relentless fate, but that we are 
immortal spirits in possession of many God-like 
attributes. Here man towers above all of God's 
earthly creatures, vindicating his claim to be the 
very apex of creation. God calls upon the rivers to 
hasten to the sea, the stars to shine, and the sun 
to give light and warmth; and they obey. But 
to us He prefers freedom of choice in all things 
and leaves us to follow unfettered, the bent of our 
own preferences. 

Do you doubt the absolute freedom of the will? 
Let us look at the question a little more closely 
through the medium of an illustration There is a 
law in this State that renders the disturbance of 
religious worship a crime punishable by fine, or 
imprisonment, or both. Let me ask you personally. 
Have you the power to decide to keep that law? Or 
to violate it if you so prefer? You very well know the 
effects of alcohol and chloral. Is not your use of 
them entirely optional? And though every law of 
heaven and earth forbids their use, have you not 
the power to use them in spite of all? 

I believe that every act is from choice. Admit- 
ting that there are many things over which we 
have no control — things too that influence us 



THE GREAT DECISION. 



137 



strongly — yet before the choice is made and it 
receives the official signature of the will, the 
alternative is presented, and an opposite choice is 
possible. No road can exist without two ends; 
no river without a head and a mouth; no analysis 
without a synthesis. In other words, everything 
is confronted by its opposite, and every choice has 
its alternative. I may be compelled to do one of 
two things, 'but there is no power to rob the posi- 
tive of the negative, or north and east of their 
opposites. I must be plain with you, as I must 
answer for your soul at the Judgment. If you are 
a sinner it is because you love sin; if you are un- 
clean, it is because you prefer uncleanliness; if 
you are devilish in character and disposition, it is 
because you cherish the Satanic spirit. 

When you first thought of this meeting there was 
a debate in your mind over the question of attending 
it. On one side was arrayed the difficulties; on 
the other the benefits to be derived. And having 
considered every aspect of the question, for and 
against, you decided to come, though it was in 
your power to decide otherwise had you preferred 
to do so. 

Here, then, towers the solemnity and the awful- 
ness of human life We are free moral agents. 
Heaven lays no constraint upon us. God with- 
holds from interference. We think, feel, speak 
and act as we please. Our characters are just as 
we fashion them. And because we are free we 



138 



THE GREAT DECISION. 



are responsible. "So then every one must give an 
account of himself to God/' But observe 

II 

TO WHOM IS OUR TEXT ADDRESSED? 

To those who have abundance of knowledge 
and freedom of choice. You have been taught to 
seek God and shun evil. You are in possession of 
the fact, that sin ends in death, and obedience 
brings everlasting life. The whole scheme of re- 
demption, too deep for angels to fathom, is as 
familiar to you as your mother's name. You are 
now called upon to decide for or against. The 
soul cries out within; the voice of the living God 
appeals without; and every longing of your inmost 
nature, urges instant action. "Choose ye this day 
whom ye will serve.*' 

God deals differently with everything else. He 
calls upon the tree to bud and blossom, and put 
forth. The tree is incapable of disobedience for 
two reasons: first, because necessity is laid upon 
it, and second, because it has no alternative. He 
hurries the sun on its mission. In the beginning 
He said: "Let there be light! And there was 
light." There was no question about it. Obedience 
was, from necessity, absolute and instant. But 
to you, having freedom of will, and the power to 
sit in judgment upon every choice, the spirit of 
the Joshua of the Gentiles is forever crying: 
Choose ye! Choose ye this day! Ye living men 
thinking up to heaven and down to hell, passing 



THE GREAT DECISION. 



139 



beyond the flight of the eagle, sinking below the 
depths of the deep. God is calling upon you to 
"Choose ye this day whom ye will serve.' 5 

A King once said to a favorite subject: "Ask 
what thou wilt and I will give it to thee." The sub- 
ject said, to himself: "If I ask for a general's 
commission I shall readily obtain it; and if I ask 
for one-half of his kingdom he will not hesitate to 
give it to me. But I will ask for something greater 
still. I will ask a gift that will include all things." 
And so he said: "Give me thy daughter to wife." 
This choice secured to him vast honors and emolu- 
ments and led to his assumption of the crown. So 
heaven calls upon you to wed yourself forever to 
the Lord Jesus Christ and thus become an heir of 
God, and all the glories and honors of His eternal 
kingdom. May we all be as wise in our choice as 
was the subject of that ancient King! But 

III 

WHEN IS THIS COMMAND TO BE OBEYED? 

Now! To-day! In Joshua's mind a prompt de- 
cision was all-important both nationally and indi- 
vidually. His eyes were already dim. His form 
was stooped, trembling in the morning breezes of 
eternity. He was soon to leave the people. To-day, 
now, this instant, I pray you decide this question. 

Oh the importance of a prompt decision, and of 
prompt action. Procrastination is the ally of Satan 
and the assassin of souls. A conclave was once 
held in hell to determine what course to pursue in 



140 



THE GREAT DECISION. 



accomplishing the damnation of men. Beelzebub 
presided. When the meeting was opened, one 
devil proposed that men be told there is no God. 
Another proposed that men be told there is no 
heaven. Another thought it best to declare there 
is no judgment, no heaven, no hell, and no here- 
after. A hundred diabolical plans were proposed 
to defeat God and damn the. souls of men. But 
at last the Devil-in-chief arose and said: ''None 
of your plans will do. Men believe in all those 
things you would denounce to them. They spring 
eternal in the human breast. To assail their cher - 
ished convictions would but strengthen their faith 
in them and defeat our purpose. But rather go 
and say to men: 'Be in no hurry. There is an 
abundance of time. True, there is a sin-hating 
God, an awful judgment, a terrible hell, and an 
endless eternity; but then be in no hurry.' And 
men will fall into the snare and be lost." And all 
the devils in hell shouted themselves hoarse in 
commending the wisdom of their great Com- 
mander- And as the cohorts of perdition filed 
out of the clanging gates of hell, the password 
given by each sentry was: Procrastination. Pro- 
crastination is the DeviPs soul trap and fortunate 
the one that escapes its deadly clutches. 

The young man in Chicago who discovered this 
morning that his appetite for rum was getting the 
mastery over him, and that he was on the road to 
a dishonored grave aand a drunkard's doom, said: U I 



THE GREAT DECISION. 



141 



must stop this/' But Satan was there and replied: 
"You are right. But then you are a young man 
yet and there is plenty of time." If the young 
man listens and heeds, his doom is sealed. Some 
day he will send for his friends, and when they 
enter his miserable, malodorus garret, he will turn 
his bloated face and glaring eyes toward them and 
say: "Great God it is too late, too late! Oh that I 
had heard and heeded the in vitation of God's peo- 
ple when I had power and will to command my 
appetite. Oh heaven, be merciful, be merciful — 
but it is too late! I shall fill a drunkard's grave, 
and go to the drunkard's hell." 

Again: He who fails to decide, lives a rambling, 
shiftless, and meaningless life. Men of decision 
have been the busy bees that have filled the 
world's hive with honey; they have been the 
architects of empires and of republics; they have 
literally turned the world upside down that both 
sides might be cultivated and the fruitfulness 
doubled. The secret of Alexander's success was 
in his colossal and unwavering decision. So it was 
with Bonaparte. This was the marked difference 
between Grant and McClellan. The decision that 
moved Grant to say: U I mean to fight it out on 
this line if it takes all summer" was a tower of 
strength to the whole nation. 

The fixed decision must precede the wise plan. 
Would you build wisely and well? Would you 
become affluent in wealth? Would you accomplish 



142 



THE GREAT DECISION. 



any great purpose? First of all you must decide. 
This is immeasurably true of things spiritual and 
eternal. 

Instant decision for God and righteousness is 
cdl-important. Each day in sin, will lessen the 
probability of your ever turning to God. Habit is 
second nature; appetite at last becomes first 
nature. The longer the river runs in one direction, 
the stronger and more unmanageable the current. 
Why? Because of the momentum, the added water 
of the tributaries, and the ever increasing depth 
of the channel. The longer a man continues in 
sin, the greater the power necessary to rescue him, 
and the less probability that he ever will be res- 
cued. DeQuincy tells us that every mind is a 
palimpsest; that every thought received makes 
an eternal impress and can never be erased. It is 
even more true that every soul is a palimpsest. 
Let the world, the flesh, and the devil, cover your 
soul with inerasible scars for a quarter or a half a 
century and you will be almost beyond the bounds 
of omnipotent recovery. For this reason old men 
are rarely saved. They have not the Russian La 
Grippe but the La Grippe of hell. They 
have it in its most chronic and malignant form 
and so vitiated are they by the virus of sin that 
recovery is exceedingly uncommon. The leopard's 
spots are fixed and the Ethiopian's skin is 
unchangable. They were impaled on the hook of 
procrastination, bated with exceeding care by Satan. 



THE GREAT DECISION. 



143 



Go look at the sixteen-story brick block, yet 
incomplete. In the first story there is a bad dent 
in the wall. The mason has failed to lay the brick 
correctly, and the longer he works and the farther 
he goes the more difficult it will be to rectify the 
mistake, and the less probability there is it ever 
will be rectified. So it is in every department of 
endeavor. It has passed into a familiar proverb: 
"You can not teach an old dog new tricks." 

So in the building of character, He who fails 
to decide for God, and goes on in the wrong will 
find it very hard to reform when his habits are 
fixed and when the whole trend of his life is down- 
ward and deathward. To-day, then, I urge with 
all my heart: make choice of the right and turn 
your feet into the ways of holiness. "Choose ye 
this day whom ye will serve.' 5 

A young man who had long deferred giving his 
heart to Christ, was thrown from his horse. A 
physician was summoned immediately: but noth- 
ing could be done. He was told that his injuries 
were fatal, and that he would probably not live 
more than an hour longer. "Great God," he 
exclaimed, "must I stand before the judge of all 
men in one short hour. Alas! Alas! I have made 
no preparation whatever. I thought there was 
plenty of time, but I was deceived by the devil. 
He was urged to repent of his sins and to look to 
Jesus for pardon, but he replied: ' ; I know not 
how. My whole life, with all its powers, has been 



144 



THE GREAT DECISION. 



spent in grieving the Spirit of the living God, and 
I cannot in this short hour overcome the sin and 
the evil trend of a whole life- time. So he died. 
Agony beaded his brow with sweat; but within 
his soul there was an agony unspeakable. He 
died without God and without hope. And it was 
all due to his failure to make a decision. But, I 
observe still farther 

IV 

THAT DECISION MEANS SERVICE. 

In this sense decision and enlistment mean 
about the same thing. The Christian life is a life 
of service. Once in the army of the Lord, one has 
no right to entangle himself with the affairs of this 
world, so as to prevent him from becoming a good 
soldier, rendering acceptable service to God. 

There is an old legend which represents Irseneus, 
one of the early Church Fathers, as placed be- 
tween an idol and a cross and required to choose 
between them. To reject the cross would result 
in all the promotions, and consequent honor and 
wealth, royalty could bestow. To accept the cross 
was to embrace persecution, poverty, and at last 
merciless and ignominious death. But his decis- 
ion was prompt; nor did he seek to conceal it 
from the world. Like his divine Master, whom 
he delighted to serve, he drank the cup of cruci- 
fixion. 

What an inspiring example for us. So ought 
we, in making this choice, to decide to serve God 



THE GREAT DECISION. 



145 



at all cost and hazard. Whether slandered or 
applauded, whether life or death be ours, it is all 
for God. We should march under the banner of 
Emmanuel not because the flesh feels like it or 
withdraws from it, but because we are in the ser- 
vice of the most high God, and are enrolled in His 
conquering battallions. Nor should we do this 
grumblingly, but with glad hearts and radiant 
countenances, remembering that every triumph in- 
creases the glory and majesty and honor of the 
World's Redeemer. 

I have read of a ship careening in a mighty 
storm when the cry was heard: u Man overboard!" 
"Man overboard!" Only volunteers could be ex- 
pected to attempt a rescue in such a sea. The 
mate and tw T o sailors launched forth on the peril- 
ous enterprise. Riding on the crest of a wave 
so high and mad it seemed to almost lift them up 
to heaven they caught sight of him, and shouted 
through a trumpet: u We are coming." At last 
they reach him but not a moment too soon, for he 
was going down the last time, and was almost 
dead. Then the brave sailors thought of the great 
distance they were from the ship and the possi- 
bility, if not indeed probability, that they would 
never reach it. But fortune often favors the brave 
and they battled their way back in safety. Tears 
afterward the mate said: u We were all exhausted, 
but the rescued man could neither speak nor walk; 
yet he had a deep sense of his condition and the 



146 



THE GREAT DECISION. 



awful death from which he had been delivered. 
He clasped our feet and kissed them. We disen- 
gaged ourselves and walked away, trying to avoid 
him, but he crawled after us unable yet to walk, 
looking upon each of us with smiles and tears, and 
patting our wet foot-prints he kissed them again 
and again. I never witnessed such a scene in my 
life," said the mate. 4 'Had he been our bitterest 
enemy our rescue of him would have made him 
our strongest and undying friend." 

But Christ did more than this for us. He gave 
not simply His services but His life. 

"He saw me plunged in deep distress, 
He flew to my relief; 
For me He bore the shameful cross, 
And carried all my grief. 

"To Him 1 owe my life and breath, 
And all the joys I have; 
He makes me triumph over death, 
He saves me from the grave." 

Surely we who accept Him as our Saviour, Res- 
cuer and Redeemer, ought to come with perfect 
consecration, gratefully singing 

' 'Here I give my all to Thee 

Frienda and time and earthly store 
Soul and body Tnine to be 
Wholly Thine forevermore. " 

Nor should we come to Him empty handed but 
with all our treasures. The heart should of its 
own accord cry out, 

"Were the whole realm of nature mine, 
That were a present far too small. 
Love so amazing, so divine 
Demands my soul, my life, my all/' 



THE GREAT DECISION. 



147 



I have but a few more words to add. Remem- 
ber as you go forth that you are free to accept or 
reject the World's Redeemer; and because you 
are free you are responsible and will at last have 
to answer at the Judgment. Remember that our 
text is addressed to you personally, as though you 
were the only person in the world; and that being 
addressed to you personally God has His eye upon 
you and will note your obedience or disobedience. 
Remember that instant, immediate obedience is 
expected. Choose ye this day, this moment, this 
instant, whom ye will serve. Remember that if 
you reject Christ in your decision to-day, the prob- 
abilities are, you will reject him forever; and re- 
jecting Him be yourself rejected at the Judgment. 
Remember that to be a follower of Christ is to be 
a soldier of the cross — not in barrack but in battle, • 
not in carpeted hall, but on the field of conflict. 
But also remember that this heavenly service has 
an infinitude of reward in time, and in eternity a 
blissful immortality. 

That there is no pleasure whatever in sin I do 
not claim. Sin is indeed alluring when a man has 
cut loose from all responsibility and shame, and 
has turned his back upon Calvary and its crucified 
Lord. There are passions of the flesh, and ex 
citements of the intellect that almost counterfeit, ■ 
for a season, the joys of the Holy Ghost. But 
the end of it all is satiety and death. The soul 
recoils from fleshly fare, The intellect sickens of 



148 



THE GREAT DECISION. 



bestiality. And having fathomed all a wicked 
world has to offer, the immortal spirit cries out: 
"I've heard every trump of fame, drank every 
cup of joy; early drank, deeply drank; drank 
draughts that common millions might have drained; 
then died of thirst because there was no more to 
drink." 

On the other hand he who makes the great de- 
cision for God and serves Him. finds joy, peace, 
love — the love of the purest and holiest on earth 
and in heaven — the fellowship of the redeemed, 
and the constant companionship of Jesus and all 
the holy angels. Eternity opens before the en- 
raptured vision, and the pearly gates swing ajar, 
awaiting his entrance. With this glorious assur- 
ance years dwindle into moments and all the 
world becomes a trifling bauble. Though dying, 
like Lazarus at the gate, he can confidently sing: 

"A tent or a cottage, why should I care, 

They are building a palace for me over there, 
Though exiled from home, yet still 1 may sing, 
All glory to God,. I'm the child of a King." 

When the Czar of Russia died, the Prime Min 
ister rushed in to the chamber of Elizabeth, whose 
right to the throne was questioned, and bade her 
sieze the crown at once. For a moment she hes- 
itated, whereupon he held before her two pictures 
which he had previously prepared. One repre- 
sented her ascending the throne amid the applause 
of the empire; the other represented her standing 



THE GREAT DECISION. 



149 



on the gallows with the black cap drawn over her 
face. ' 'Decide instantly." he cried. 64 Your life 
is at stake " And she chose the crown and as- 
cended the throne. I hold before you two pictures. 
One is of Christ the blessed Saviour; the other is 
of Satan the accursed Destroyer. And back of 
Christ I see heaven stretching away in matchless 
beauty and loveliness, while back of Satan there 
is naught but darkness, despair and death. Decide 
instantly! Your life is at stake. 



FAITH IN GOD. 



Have faith in God, Mark 11 : 22. 

The withering away, without visible cause, of the un- 
touched fig tree very naturally arrested the attention 
and excited the astonishment of the discerning dis- 
ciples. "And in the morning, as they passed by, they 
saw the fig-tree dried up from the roots. And Peter 
calling to remembrance, saith unto Him, Master, 
behold, the fig-tree which Thou eursedst is withered 
away." And Jesus answering saith unto them: 
"Have fairhin God. 5 ' Here Jesus touched the key- 
note of all human endeavor, and strung it up to the 
concert pitch of heaven. The hidden spring of all our 
earthly activities is faith: faith in our own strength 
and ability, faith in the law of cause and effect, faith 
in men, and, in some measure faith in God. With- 
out faith the "fire canoe, 5 ' as the Indians quaintly 
called our steamboats, would not float, graceful as 
the swan, up and down our rivers, the seas would 
bear no precious argosies from shore to shore, the 
forests would remain untrod, and the prairie and 
woodland untilled. 

Last Spring we saw the farmer on the hillside and 
in the valley, scattering golden grain left and right. 



FAITH IN GOD. 



151 



He was in utter ignorance of the outcome of his 
labor. There was no feign of sprout or stalk, or 
fruitage ; and yet so confident was he of the presence 
and superintendence of an All wise Chemist that he 
fairly emptied his granaries upon the bosom of the 
earth, and invested his last dollar on the very best 
seed in the market. Here is faith: faith in the sea- 
son, the teed, the fertility of the soil, and the uri- 
vaiLbleness of natural law. Others invest time, 
money and labor in building schools, enlarging and 
perhaps founding libraries, and enriching laborato- 
ries. Here again, is faith: faith in man, faith in the 
mind, faith in the benefits to be derived from learn- 
ing and culture. Others build churches, establish 
missions, and pour their treasures- into the Lord's 
coffers, for the betterment of men and the glory of 
God, This is faith: faith in man's need of help, in 
his desire to be. helped, and in the helpfulness of the 
Gospel. Yet others lay themselves upon God's 
altar. They withhold nothing. They require noth- 
ing. They present themselves as freewill offerings. 
On bended knees they cry : 

"Vain, delusive world aditu, 

With all of creature good! 
Oaly Jesus I pursue, 

Who bought me with His blood : 
All thy pleasures I forego; 

I Trample on thy wealth and pride ; 
Only Jesus will I know, 

And Jesus crucified." 



152 



FAITH IN GOD. 



" Take my soul and body's powers; 

Take my memory, mind and will, 
All my goods and all my hours; 

All I know and all I feel; 
All I think, or speak, or do; 

Take my heart, but make it new. 

"Now, O God, Thine own I am, 
Now I give Tiiee back Thine own ; 

Freedom, friends and health and fame, 
Consecrate to Thee alone : 

Thine I live, thrice happy I, 
Happier still if Thine I die." 

Oh, the omnipotence of faith! It was faith that 
opened heaven to created intelligences. It was faith 
that gave earth its morning prayers, prophetic song, 
and redemptive chorus. It was faith that brought a 
sinless Redeemer to a mocking sin-cursed world. 
It is faith that sends hope to draw on future stores 
for the supply of present needs. It is faith that 
keeps love burning brightly till the shadows hie 
away. It is faith in God that builds churches, 
endows institutions of learning and of philanthropy 
and hurries God's ambassadors over all the moun- 
tains and across all the seas. Were I permitted to 
spring to the front and guide the thought and con- 
viction of the world's leaders to-day I know of no 
words so fully embodying my desire, as these words 
of Jesus addressed to Peter: "Have faith in 
God/' 

At the very threshold of our theme, I raise the 
central question, namely: 



FAITH IN GOD, 



153 



WHAT IS FAITH ? 

It is the acceptation of testimony — accepting 
credentials that are properly and sufficiently attested. 
Faith is impossible without testimony. The invis- 
ible must appear, actually or by proxy, before an 
intelligent man can believe. The proxy may be a 
person, an attested document, or a work of mechan- 
ical skiil. On entering this edifice there is evidence 
of an existing plan. The plan anticipated certain 
religious services ; the services represent thought, 
and thought necessitates a thinker and thus through 
spire and wall, and chancel rail, appears the invisible 
and inaudible architect. But all this may be taught 
us by the hut down by the stream in yonder forest, 
where the hermit rears his adobe walls, his homely 
roof and antique chimney. The work of a hermit 
is proof positive of the existence, at some time past 
or present, of a hermit. 

When at the American Centennial Exhibition in 
1876, I took in my hand the watch so wonderfully 
wrought by the French jeweler. The triumph of 
mechanism was undisputable proof of a triumphant 
mechanic. As long as freedom lasts, the name of 
Lincoln will awaken applause, and as long as free 
governments survive, the name of Washington will 
be cherished. States will tremble at the names of 
Csesar and Charlemagne, and armies will wax wild 
at the name of Bonaparte. Thus faith in men is 
based upon the works of men. Men invest their 
money, donate their time, and even hazard their 



FAITH IN GOD. 



lives. Faith in institutions rests on the work they 
do, and the history they make, But there are some 
things too dear to be entrusted to men or institu- 
tions. Men and institutions are finite and mutable. 
They are subject to change and circumstance. 
Sometimes they lack heart and ability to battle with 
fierce and outnumbering opposition for what ought 
to be victorious. Men themselves bewail this fact. 
Hence the nations of the earth have been in age- 
long quest of some one having courage and ability 
to do all that needs to be done. Peter marveled at 
the super-human power that blasted the fig-tree and 
wondered how such a thing were possible without a 
visible agent. Our Saviour's only answer was: 
u Have faith in God!" Here is the measure of 
your victory — in whom you believe and how much 
you believe. 

But honest doubt raises the question : 

IS THERE REALLY AXY PROOF OF THE EXISTENCE 

OF GOD ? 

TVe answer, yes. God reveals Himself in His 
multitudinous works. When I enter a home, I 
find that certain social and domestic laws have de- 
cided its orbit, marked its course, and given it its 
peculiar form and tone. Involuntarily my mind 
reverts to the thinker and planner and gives him 
honor for the sweet comfort, cosiness, and at tht^ 
same time majesty of the visible home. I ihen 
understand Paul's meaning when he says : u For 



FAITH IN GOD. 



155 



every house is builded by some man, but He that 
built all things, is God. 9 ' So God's house, with its 
dazzling and innumerable appointments, not only 
declares that He is, but that He is glorious. As the 
Psalmist says : " The heavens declare the glory of 
God ; and the firmament sheweth His handiwork. 
Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night 
sheweth knowledge. There is no speech nor lan- 
guage where their voice is not heard. Their line is 
gone out through all the earth, and their words to 
the end of the world. In them hath He set a taber- 
nacle for the sun. Which is as a bridegroom com- 
ing out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a strong 
man to run a race. His going forth is from the 
end of the heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of 
it : and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof." 

So clearly is God seen in all His handiwork, Paul 
says: "The invisible things of Him from the 
creation of the world are clearly seen, being under- 
stood by the things that are made, even His eternal 
power and Godhead, so that they are without 
excuse." Here God challenges the intelligence of 
every creature. To be unable to see God in the 
ceaseless round of seasons, the diversity of form, 
and multiplicity of life — to be unable to feel His 
presence in the whirling cyclone, the thundering 
earthquake, and the countless systems of worlds, 
marshalled on the nightly plain, is to declare 
one's self a benighted agnostic. Only " the fool 
hath said in his heart there is no God." Only a 



156 



FAITH IN GOD. 



fool is capable of such folly. But God also reveals 
Himself in 

MATCHLESS WISDOM AND GOODNESS. 

A few years ago all the telescopes in the world 
were turned toward a particular spot in the heavens. 
Astronomers declared that two planets must collide 
and even infidels had a feeling of discomfort. 
Adventists arrayed themselves in white robes and 
made ready to ascend amid the general crash. But 
the great Christian world reposed on the great and 
exceeding precious and numerous promises of God, 
while children undisturbed drowsily murmured at 
nightfall the simple prayer: 

"Now I lay me down to sleep , 
I pray Thee, Lord, my soul to keep, 

And should I die before I wake, 

I pray Thee, Lord, my soul to take." 

The Christian heart was confident that the Great 
Pilot was at the wheel, and that in His own way 
He would bring deliverance. Nor was their con- 
fidence in vain. I go out into the meadows, radiant 
with flowers and melodious with insect vocalism. 
The bees are busy, making ready for the austere 
days of winter. I watch the birds. They are 
practicing homely economy and thrift, and soon will 
take their autumnal flight, I watch the squirrel, 
the chipmunk and the rabbit. It is not difficult to 
believe that the gentle hand of the infinitely tender 
God, sometimes caresses them. An infidel Sabbath- 
breaker relates the following experience : " I entered 



FAITH IN GOD. 



157 



the forest one beautiful Sabbath morning and soon 
saw a little bird nervously flitting from limb to 
limb. At the base of the tree I saw a serpent. The 
bird flew away, but soon returned with a leaf which 
she carefully spread over the young and then with- 
drew to a neighboring perch seemingly satisfied that 
all would be well. The serpent gloating with the 
thought of his dainty meal, writhed himself up the 
tree. But no sooner did he touch the leaf that cov- 
ered the little chirping birdlets, than he stiffened and 
fell back dead to the ground. The bird descended, 
removed the strange leaf, and poured out its soul in 
a song of thanksgiving. I asked: Who guided the 
mother-bird to the death-dealing yet life-saving leaf? 
And," continued the ex-infidel, "the conclusion was 
irresistible, that He who spoke to the bird, must have 
some word for me, and I returned home to pray." 

The infidel was right. He who speaks to burrow- 
ing ant and buzzing fly, and chirping bird, must also 
have some message for me. Even the most dimin- 
utive creature understands His language ; shall He 
speak in an unknown tongue to His own children ? 
I am weak and helpless ; I am supremely dependent : 
and yet I am capable of sinking into depths deplor- 
able, or rising to the heights sublime; will God 
allow my fate to be at the mercy and caprice of a 
blind and heartless fate ? Reason, honor, justice — 
everything within me — answer: No! And in my 
search I find a wonderful document. It is nothing 
short of a letter, written by the hand of God, and 



158 



FAITH IN GOP. 



sealed and delivered by His holy prophets and 
apostles. I read it. I test it. I live it. By ex- 
perience I know it is true. By the testimony of my 
triune being, I declare its Jehovistic authorship. 

Without entering into the of t-repeated arguments 
in support of the authenticity of the Revelation, I 
see at a glance that it is what man needs, and just 
such a letter as we should expect an infinitely wise 
and good God to write. Though writ! en long ago, 
it anticipated the ills and evils of all succeeding 
centuries, and made provision for emergencies then 
unknown to all except the Infinite, with whom all 
eternity, past, present and future — is one eternal 
Now. To this letter written in the dim past by the 
all- wise and infinite God, adjusting itself to all 
grades of intellect, culture and circumstance, having 
eye and ear and heart for all forms of life, from 
the microscopic insect to the glory-crowned home, 
to this letter I give instant, hearty and unqualified 
assent. 

But God still further reveals himself in 

OMNIPOTENT POWER. 

I have stood on the mountain-crest at sunrise, 
when the King of Day was firing volley after volley 
through the myriad colored tree-tops, and paint- 
ing many a moss-grown, flower-decked ledge of rock 
with all the colors of the rainbow and tried to esti- 
mate the power thus manifested, to calculate the 
might that lifted the gates of the morning, put to 
flight the shadows of the night, and ushered in an- 



FALL 11 IN GOD, 



159 



other day of busy and bustling activity. I have seen 
Bunker Hill monument swing to and fro in the sun- 
light of this power, the iron and armored heart 
spring open at the touch of an invisible hand; a 
whole life transformed by a whispered breath of love. 

But God reveals himself in yet mightier power. 
Death quails before Him and all the spectres that 
crowd upon us and fill us with terror, flee from His 
presence. No circumstance hinders His victorious 
progress. Mary and Martha held to the Jewish 
faith, beautiful in its simplicity and entirety. But 
when Lazarus succumbed to death, and obnoxious 
odors proclaimed that molecular decomposition had 
set in, hope sank within them and they greeted the 
Lord with the tearful exclamation: " If Thou hadst 
been here, my brother had not died. 5 '' Jesus said,"Thy 
brother shall rise again. I am the resurrection and the 
life. Take ye away the stone." "Nay, nay, my Lord, 
it is too late; consider the circumstances, and his 
condition. 55 "Take ye away the stone" said Jesus. 
To tlie omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent One, 
what is there able to withstand His power ? The 
stone is removed. The Lord of life and glory 
vanquishes death and Lazarus comes forth. " Loose 
him and let him go,' 5 was the Master's majestic 
command. Oh, beloved, believe in the unconquer- 
able Christ. 

" Depend on Him: thou canst not fail ; 

Mak^ all thy wants and wishes known; 
Fear not, His merits must prevail, 

Ask but in faith, it shall be done." 



160 



FAITH IN GOD. 



Once on the field of carnage I tr'ed to bear a 
wounded brother away from a cruel and bitter 
enemy, but my strength was insufficient. But my 
Saviour is able to save unto the uttermost, even 
from the jaws of death, the horrors of hell, and the 
awfulness of the grave. 

But I glory most of all in the omnipotence of 

Divine love, as manifested in Jesus Christ. Oh 

what an epic of love is the story of Redemption ! 

Well may the poet sing: 

' Were the whole realm of nature mine, 
That were a present far too small ; 
Love so amazing, so divine, 
Demands my soul, my life, my all." 

" Beloved now are we the sons of God, and it doth 
not yet appear what we shall be. But we know 
that when He shall appear we shall be like Him, 
for we shall see Him as He is. And every one 
that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even 
as He is pure." 

Herein is the basis of 

the christian's hope: 
God pledges Himself, and is abundantly able to 
keep that which we have committed to Him. Faith 
looks up to the blood-stained cross and there reads : 
u Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unright- 
eous man his thoughts ; and let him return unto the 
Lord, and He will have mercy upon him ; and to 
our God, for He will abundantly pardon." Trust 
confidently waits until the Spirit of the eternal God 



FAITH IX GOD. 



161 



comes and begets within us, the assurance of son - 
ship. 

Once, when Luther was very sick, Satan is said 
to have entered his chamber and thrown down a 
long scroll before him, covered with the record of 
his sins. " See," siid his Satanic Majesty, " these 
sins are all yours." "Yes," replied the sturdy re- 
former, " but see, c Pardoned' is written at the foot ; 
and across every page shines the assurance, 
6 Washed in the blood of the Lamb. 5 " Thank God ! 
The just do Hoe by faith, " Wherefore being jus- 
tified by faith we have peace with God through our 
Lord Jesus Christ/' " There is therefore now no 
condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus." 

" The dying thief rejoiced to see, 
That fountain in his day ; 
And there have J, though vile as he, 
Washed all my sins away." 

By faith our sins are nailed to the cross. 

" My sins— O, the bliss of that glorious thought, 
M/ sins — not in part but the whole, 
Are nailed on the cross an .1*1 bear the m no more, 
Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord, O, my soul." 

Again faith reads : " If we confess our sins He is 
faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse 
us from all unrighteousness.' 5 And the moment a 
man receives pardon, hope longs for purity, yea, 
puritieth the believer even as God is pure. As the 
child longs to be like his father, so he who expects 
to live with God forever, longs to be like God. 



162 



FAITH IN GOD, 



Thus faith looks for the fulfillment of all prom- 
ises. Christ has promised to come again, and faith 
confidently looks for the re-appearance of the God- 
man Redeemer. When a child I was told the story 
of the life of the great discoverer, Christopher Co- 
lumbus. I learned to admire his character, and my 
eyes longed to behold him. In 1876 I stood with 
thousands on the heights in Fairmount Park in 
Philadelphia, gazing upon a statue, wrapped in 
Spanish and American flags. It was the form of 
Christopher Columbus in bronze. Soon the cords 
were removed by unseen hands, the flags floated 
away into the heavens, and the familiar form ap- 
peared amidst the plaudits of thousands of people. 
So I now see Jesus wrapped in the trailing gar- 
ments of the Old and the New Testaments. But 
some day angels will roll back the curtains and we 
shall see His face and hear His voice, and not 
simply be satisfied as David said, but ravished with 
delight. Nor shall we see Him only, but those also 
whom we have loved and lost. 

Sailing westward on the Santa Maria, Columbus 
saw bits of wood, of grass, and flocks of birds. They 
were all unlike anything known to Europe. They 
must, of necessity, have come to life and grown in 
some outer world. The testimony was incontestable. 
His faith was fixed. Hope now spread on full pin- 
ion, and speeded him on. The sailors mutinied, 
but the dauntless old hero cried, Westward ! West- 
ward ! Westward ! and at last amid the glories of an 



FAITH IN GOD. 



163 



autumnal morning he landed upon the shores of 
the fabled Atlantis, and the gates of Eden once 
more swung ajar on noiseless hinges and the whole 
wide world was electrified. 

So when we read and study the life and charac- 
ter of Christ, we ride on the Santa Maria at the very 
fore-front of history. His wisdom is matchless. 
His words are unparalleled. His character is un- 
earthly. The conviction that He came from an- 
other world j cannot be shaken off. He declares 
Himself to be a citizen of heaven. Faith receives 
His testimony, and hope declares that we shall at 
last join Him "when the mists have rolled away." 
Millions, inspired by the same confidence, have 
boarded the good old ship of Zion and will one day 
cast anchor and go up into the city of gold. 

This opens to ns the possibilities of a perfect 
manhood. I watch the bird as it measures the dis- 
tance from house to tree, and from lower limb to 
ground, until satisfied of safety, and then builds a 
cosy home of moss, and weeds and flowers. In due 
time the cunning bits of life peep out from the 
speckled shell, and then emerge entirely. But the 
frosts fall, or diseases come, or bird or beast of prey 
destroys and the work of growth and development 
is arrested. So we guard our children, we toil for 
them and watch over them, but death comes, and 
blasts our fairest prospects. Thank God ! This life 
is bnt the beginning. Beyond there is an endless 
summer, infinitely rich in the fruition of all our 
hopes and dreams. 



164 



FAITH IN GOD. 



But an all-important question still remains to be 
asked : 

WHAT IS SAVING FAITH? 

Believing with the heart unto righteousness ; 
that quantity and quality of faith that results in a 
holy life; that assimilation of all the fruits of the 
Spirit that begets in us the image of the Only- 
begotten. 

Many believe objectively only. They recognize 
the Saviour and admire him with the same frame of 
mind and heart they recognize and admire Aristides 
the Just or Marcus Aurelius. But they no more 
become Christian by so doing than they become 
Aurelian or Aristidean. The devils believe and 
tremble, yea, and confess Christ, but are devils still. 
Faith to be saving, must be subjective ; it must 
issue in regeneration, transformation and sanctifica- 
tion ; it must clarify and spiritualize, and eliminate 
the dross and dregs of our being, until we shall be- 
come exact copies of the Pattern before whom an- 
gels cast their glittering crownSo 

Granville Moody, a Philadelphia boy, at twelve, 
was discovered to have a defective arm. The 
mother said, " Son, what is the matter with your 
arm? 5 ' The boy explained as best he could. A 
surgeon was summoned who, upon examination 
declared that the child's life was in peril, and that 
only a surgical operation could save him. The boy 
declined, whereupon the mother said : " Do you 
not believe in his skill?'' u Oh, yes; but I cannot 



FAITH IN GOD. 



165 



venture/' was the reply. At last he yielded, even 

for a second operation. Surrendering himself to 

the surgeon was an illustration of saving faith. 

Granville lived to become a Methodist preacher, 

and the fifty years of active efficient service were 

the fruits of that faith. 

Thus we surrender ourselves to the Saviour. We 

have no fear or trembling. 

"Not one object of His care 
Ever suffered shipwreck there."'* 

He says it shall be well with the righteous. 
Faith says : Yea, I believe. Instantly the mighty 
work is wrought. The heart leaps with gladness, 
and there is joy in the presence of the angels. A 
new trophy adorns the cross and all hell rages and 
writhes with the shame of ignominious defeat. 

Bu f we must beware of presumption. Israel 
walked through the Eed Sea dry shod. "Aha!" 
cried Pharaoh, " What that renegade Moses did, I 
can do. 7 ' He plunged in with the flower of Egypt's 
soldiery, but only to perish in the embrace of hiss- 
ing and mocking waves. He was a victim of pre- 
sumption. Beloved, beware how you presume. 
Be sure God's granite promise is beneath you. 
Otherwise you will be another Pharaoh. 

But with God's promises as your foundation and 
bulwark you can say, in your darkest hours, with 
Job: " He knoweth the way I take, and when He 
has tried me, He will bring me forth as pure gold." 
Here is rest amid the surging billows. Science, 



166 



FAITH IN GOD 



so-called, may threaten, seasons and systems change, 
but Christians rest on Jehovah's eternal liw. 
Of times they see not, but believing they rejoice 
with joy unspeakable and full of glory. 

When William Scott was led forth on Virginia's 
heights to be shot, we saw the gray horse coming 
and heard the messenger shout : " Hold ! I am the 
bearer of a pardon ;" and William, already behind 
the black cap, though he saw not the pardon or the 
messenger believed and rejoiced. Two weeks later 
when carried from the field mortally wounded in 
defense of his country he prayed : " God bless 
Abraham Lincoln ! He saved me from a death of 
shame. I can now go honorably to meet my 
Maker." Standing here in the presence of this 
audience and the great Judge to whom I must 
speedily render an account I rejoice, for whosoever 
believeth on the Lord Jesus Christ shall never die. 
There are no exceptions; and all may have faith in 
God. Paul says that " Faith is the gift of God," 
and we who have been to Him know by experience 
that He giveth liberally and upbraideth not. 

A few months ago entering New York city from 
the ocean, I stood on the deck of the ship with the 
Chief of Detectives of that great metropolis. 
Having to do with criminals as a profession he told 
me many interesting things, and pointed out place 
after place where they were detained and punished 
in various degrees according to the heinousness of 
their crimes. At last he pointed out a place and 



FAITH IN GOD. 



167 



said : " Here we keep the incorrigible and incur- 
able." O, how that rang in my soul. Incorrigible 
and incurable ! Science, skill, the ministries of 
friendship and affection — all in vain. Unsaved 
and unsavable. Hope set in eternal night. Judg- 
ment and conviction certain before the Judge 
ascends to his seat. Incorrigible and incurable. 
I walked the streets of that great city with the 
words of the detective clanging in my soul. Re- 
turning home, I entered my study and laid my 
weary and oppressed heart, down on this precious 
truth : " The gospel of Christ is the power of God 
unto salvation to every one that helievethP Thank 
God for such a gospel. It saves unto the utter- 
most. It 

" Laughs at impossibilities, 

And cries: It shall be done." 

It lays hold, with infinite tenderness, on the 
crimson-stained and scarlet dyed, and instantly 
they appear whiter than snow. The harlot and 
the thief, the falsifier and deceiver are made new 
creatures in Christ Jesus, by a simple act of faith. 
One upward look and the burden rolls away for- 
ever. 

" Jesus 1 the name that charms our fears, 
That bids our sorrows cease; 
'Tis music in the sinner's ears, 
Tis life, and health, and peace." 



FAITH IN GOD. 



'He breaks the power of canceled sin, 

He sets the prisoner free; 
His blood can make the foulest clean; 
His blood avails for me. 

' O for a thousand tongues, to sing 

My great Rsdeemer's praise ; 
The glories of my God an A King, 
The triumphs of His grace.'* 



THE GLORIOUS GOSPEL. 



" The glorious gospel of the blessed God" 
I. Tim: i: 11. 



Paul's estimate of the gospel was very high. He 
speaks of it as glorious in itself, and as accomplish- 
ing great revolutions according to its high stand- 
ard, and its multipotent and omnipotent efficiency; 
and surely he was a competent and qualified wit- 
ness. The fullness of time had come and the prayer 
of Moses had been answered. The long-looked-for 
Messiah had reached the habitations of men, per- 
forming His allotted work, fulfilling prophecy, and 
making history ; the Law had been superseded and 
the gospel sun had risen out of morning twilight 
evermore to shine in full meridian splendor. Paul 
stood amid the triumphs of this gospel. The lame 
were leaping for joy, the blind seeing, the deaf 
hearing, the dead living, and the gospel was being 
preached to the poor. In the streets of Antioch, 
Ephesus, Phillippi, Colosse, Gralatia, Thessalonica, 
Corinth and Pome, not to mention contiguous 
towns and villages, the spirit of the song was float- 
ing : 

" Come all the world, come sinner, thou, 
All things in Christ are ready now." 



170 



THE GLORIOUS GOSPEL. 



Paul being a recipient of the gospel knew its 
wonderful power to transform humanity spir- 
itually and intellectually and was himself so radically 
changed as to be at variance with the sages, phil- 
osophers and teachers, at whose feet, earlier in life, 
he himself had sat with profoundest reverence and 
attention. To him they all failed to apprehend the 
glorious provision made for sinners in the gospel 
of the blessed God. Even Peter, who was ready to 
defend the Lord Jesus at all times, still contended 
for the Law, believing it to be efficacious. To him 
the coming of Christ was but to supply ability to 
keep the Law. According to the early Petrine 
conception, just as the sluggish murky stream is en- 
abled to sweep away the debris thrown into its chan- 
nel by the quickening force of the river that is fed 
by mountain snows, so the languid torpid stream 
of Judaism was to be refreshed and energized by the 
new life in Christ Jesus. Thus aided, man could 
keep the Law and in so doing be justified. 

But to the enlarged conception of Paul this did 
not meet the case, or state the true mission of Jesus. 
Christ had suffered crucifixion and entombment and 
in the resurrection He had opened up a new and liv- 
ing way ; and in Him, instead of through an en- 
larged and resuscitated Mosaism, were men to be 
justified. Phillips Brooks thus represents it: "A 
woman, pure, cultured and refined, from the sweet- 
est and purest circles of Christendom crosses the 
globe to dwell in the darkest and most barbarous 



THE GLORIOUS GOSPEL. 



171 



land of the earth. She bids adieu to home, loved 
ones and congenial society, and goes into the midst 
of those who are low and brutal. She at once en- 
ters into the interests of the people in order that 
she may touch and ennoble their lives. She feels their 
ills, tastes their sorrows, experiences their woes, and 
suffers their disappointments. While there, she is 
often on the banks of the river, remembering former 
days, sighing for home, and longing for sweeter, 
higher communion ; and yet is ceaseless and 
tireless in self-abnegation and in labors of love." 

All this is, indeed, applicable to Christ, who, leav- 
ing heaven and angels for earth and strife, took on 
himself our nature, suffered hunger and thirst, was 
torn with thorns and nails, beaten with many stripes, 
and stood on the banks looking heavenward with 
yearnings unutterable. All this the apostle im- 
plies when he says : a We have not an high priest 
which cannot be touched with the feeling of our 
infirmities, but was tempted in all points like as we 
are, yet without sin." Read the 53d chapter of 
Isaiah. But to Paul there was still a higher mean- 
ing. To him Christ was not simply a sufferer, but 
a victim. He was crucified. He had tasted death 
for a race. To see Jesus other than crucified was 
not to see Him at all. Just as Abraham Lincoln 
is seen in marble and bronze in connection with the 
Emancipation Proclamation, so Christ must be 
viewed in connection with the cross. Between 
heaven and earth, forsaken by both, out of unfath- 



172 



THE GLORIOUS GOSPEL. 



omable, impenetrable darkness He cries : " My God ! 
My God ! why hast Thou forsaken me?" Suffer- 
ing the extreme penalty of the Law, and yet as pure 
and innocent as the lilies with which He adorned 
His sermons, He exclaims : 

" I freely all foreive, 
This blood is for thy ransom paid, 
I die that thou may'st live." 

Paul saw what Peter could not see ; that the law 
had completed its work when it had served as man's 
teacher and crucifier ; hence he wrote to the 
Galatians, " I am crucified with Christ ; " and to 
the Romans, "I am dead to the Law," The law 
was for the lawless and not for the righteous. Paul 
had learned a better way. He had tasted of its 
fruits. It was perfection of love out of a pure heart. 
In this joyous experience he toiled and triumphed, 
and at the last, sustained by an unwavering faith, 
he approached the corridors of death, amid the 
circles of weeping ones, while angels swept the 
gates ajar, welcoming him who was chief of sin- 
ners, but now saved, " according to the glorious gos- 
pel of the blessed God." 

I. 

THE GLORY OF THE GOSPEL IS SEEN IN ITS CONCEP- 
TION. 

1. The limitless mind. I looked on the Brook- 
lyn bridge over which the multitudes pass from city 
to city, clear above the hurrying waters and the 



THE GLORIOUS GOSPEL. 



173 



mighty ships bearing a world's commerce, and 
thought of the wonderful display of mechanism, in 
bringing together so much material, and at the ex- 
pense of so much time and toil and treasure, mould- 
ing it into this marvel of modern engineering and 
mechanical genius, and wondered what the condi- 
tion of mind must have been when that vast struc- 
ture first swung and vibrated in thought, struggling 
fur birth. Marvelous mind! And yet that is but 
one of countless similar minds inspired by the 
spirit of the great Omniscient. And great and 
wonderful as is the bridge, it requires constant care, 
guarding and repair; and in the years to coaie, the 
tooth of time will gnaw it until it will totter and 
fall into the turbid waters beneath. But in the 
mind of God long before the foundations of the 
world were laid, a bridge compared with which the 
Brooklyn bridge is but an infant's toy was con- 
structed, vibrating in the thought of Deity, over 
which the countless millions are passing without 
delay, or sound, or halt — a bridge beyond the possi- 
bility of decay or destruction. 

" Hail, sovereign grace that first began 
The scheme to rescue fallen man ! 
Hail, matchless, free, eternal grace 
That gave my soul a hiding place !" 

In November, 1776, Benjamin Franklin was sent 
to France to negotiate for recognition, on the part 
of the colonies as a separate and independent gov- 
ernment, and to induce Louis XVI. to enter upon 



174 



THE GLORIOUS GOSPEL. 



reciprocal relations with us. Upon his return 
almost a year and a half later, bearing aloft; the 
precious papers containing the signatures of the 
French King and Yergennes, his Prime Minister, 
entering the harbor in New York, long before a 
word was spoken, the air resounded with shouts 
and sounds of gladness. A great ally had been 
gained and that night every colony along our coast 
burned its torches, while hope transfigured their 
faces. But why this universal joy? Because it as- 
sured the establishment of a free and independent 
government, and the signing of those papers 
acknowledged it as such. Not a government of 
Tories, Unionists, or Liberalists, but a government 
" of the people, for the people, by the people." 
So, when the fullness of time had come, and the 
papers had passed the court of heaven, receiving the 
signature of God, the Grand Monarch, and of His 
Prime Minister, the Holy Spirit, Jesus entered the 
harbor of human hope, and angels appeared above 
the shepherds, singing His coronation hymn : 
" Glory to God in the highest ! Peace on earth, 
good will to men ! " To men, not as Jews or Gen- 
tiles, as Greeks or barbarians, but men — lost, sin- 
cursed, dying men. The limitless mind ! The lim- 
itless mind ! 

2. Its limitless adaptability. Truly any scheme 
that can satisfy at one and the same time the long- 
ings of the cultured and uncultured 5 the wise and 
the ignorant, the vicious and the virtuous, and the 



THE GLORIOUS GOSPEL. 



rich and the poor, is glorious ; for it is one thing to 
save the child of honorable parentage, in whose 
veins gentle blood flows, untouched by the vicious 
influences of wicked men, surrounded by hallowed 
associations, guarded by angels of love, every 
awakening desire kindly and discreetly met, and re- 
fined and cultured by the aid of learning, art and 
lofty society — but quite another thing to save the 
child of vicious parents, whose earliest hours are 
filled with profanity, obscenity and vice, who is sent 
out into the streets to practice pauperism, vandal- 
ism and thievery, and who is punished if he is un- 
successful in iniquity. Seemingly it is an easy mat- 
ter to make statesmen, poets and philosophers out 
of Longfellows, Tennysons, Carlyles, Emersons, 
Websters, Lincolns, Bismarcks, and Gladstones; 
surely if human skill and philosophy can do any- 
thing toward ennobling men it ought to succeed 
with this class of material. But failures are more 
numerous here than in the fields of the gospel min- 
istry, which takes men filled with blasphemy and 
all manner of vice, and makes them saints to be pre- 
sented before the throne of God without spot or 
wrinkle — faultless in the light of His most glorious 
presence. Behold Bunyan, the village blasphemer, 
the leader of the reprobates of Bedford . It was the 
a glorious gospel of the blessed God " that trans- 
formed him and enabled him to write the Pilgrim's 
Progress, that matchless allegory. Note John 
Newton! Taken from the deck of a slave-ship and 



176 



THE GLORIOUS GOSPEL. 



crowned by the " glorious gospel of the blessed 
God," a king among saints. Look at Paul ! His 
breath lightning and his voice thunder. The terror 
of all the Christians in and about Jerusalem. Eat 
"the glorious gospel of the blessed God" trans- 
formed him into an angel of light. After the 
lapse of nineteen centuries the gospel remains un- 
conquered. For it there are no incurables ! No 
hard cases ! No hopeless candidates. The glori- 
ous gospel of the blessed God " saves all classes to 
the uttermost ! 

Oh, this " glorious gospel of the blessed God ! " 
It is the sun of all systems. When you have mul- 
tiplied earth's forces by a million, you have only ap- 
proximated that of the sun ! Multiply all the plan- 
ets and their attendants by 500 and you have not 
reached the grandeur and glory of that orb ! Had 
it intelligence it could see its face reflected in every 
opening flower, sparkling dew-drop, murmuring 
brook, swelling stream, tossing sea, icy peak and 
floating cloud. But the gospel is the sun of suns. 
When all the forces and philosophies of earth are 
multiplied by millions and by eternities they fall in- 
finitely below the " glorious gospel of the blessed 
God." 

Surely such a scheme must have had its birth in 
the limitless mind of the great God. No other such 
system of benefits ever touched this border land of 
despair. Philosophers have set forth theories, obey- 
ing which men may escape the pitfalls into which 



THE GLORIOUS GOSPEL. 



177 



their fathers fell ; but, alas ! they remain silent con- 
cerning those already in the diteh. For these, 
from the human standpoint, there is neither hope 
or help. Zeno, Socrates and Plato said much to 
chrer the virtuous, but no crumb of comfort did 
they drop for those who had lost virtue. Philan- 
thropists have indeed fed and clothed the victims 
of vice, but left them unchanged as vicious as they 
found them. But Christianity takes the crimson- 
stained and scarlet-dyed and so purifies, transforms 
and remoulds their entire being and character that 
they become high priests before the altars of the 
blessed God, and fit, even honored, associates of 
princes and kings. Our Saviour took the glorified 
and forgiven thief into His chariot and made him 
a traveling companion to Paradise ! 

II. 

ITS GLORY IS FURTHER SEEN LST ITS POWER. 

It is the power of God. Take your seat in the 
chariot of the wind and ride to the outermost rim 
of the storm and then tell of the power of God. 
Or ascend to the loftiest summit of Mont Blanc 
and set your telescope in favorable position for a 
review of all the worlds as they pass by you in solid 
yet silent phalanx. Then multiply what you have 
seen by the infinity you have not seen, and that by 
eternity and you will possibly have reached the 
alphabet in your comprehension of the power of 
God. After this it may not be so difficult to under- 



178 



THE GLORIOUS GOSPEL. 



stand how God could stop the wheels of nature and 
hold back the tides of the sea ; how He could change 
the flames into tender grass and the waves into 
marble pavement. 

"The Lord our God is clothed with might, 
The winds obey His will ; 
He speaks, and in His heavenly height 
The rolling sun stands still. 

a Rebel, ye waves, and o'er the land 
With threatening aspect roar; 
The Lord uplifts His awf ul hand, 
And chains you to the shore. 

" Ye winds of night, your force combine; 
Without His high behest, 
Ye shall not, in the mountain pine, 
Disturb the sparrow's nest. 

u His voice sublime is heard afar; 

In distant peals it dies ; 
He yokes the whirlwind to His car, 
And sweeps the howling skies. 

' ' Ye sons of earth, in reverence bend ; 
Ye nations, wait His nod ; 
And bid the choral song ascend 
To celebrate our God. " 

But the power of God — the influence of the gos- 
pel is unlike all other forces in that it is indestruc- 
tible. Once in the heart it never can be wholly 
eradicated, The smallest particle of light falling 
upon the sensitive plate produces a chemical change 
that can never be undone. Such is the effect of 
gospel truth upon the awakened conscience. Id 
1884, in the city of Boston, a young man of more 



THE GLORIOUS GOSPEL. 



179 



than ordinary ability, who was in soul-trouble, came 
to me for advice. I knew him well and was with 
him when he was converted. He entered the uni- 
versity to prepare for the ministry, but switched off 
and became a lawyer. Then Satan tempted him 
and he was touching the fringe of infidelity. " But," 
said he, " there is one thing I can neither forget nor 
get away from ; and that is the fact of my conver- 
sion." The gospel had left its indelible impress 
upon his soul. 

But it is a great gospel. Joseph Cook says : 
" Grant was a great man and always talked on great 
subjects." Leviathans move in great bodies of 
water. It requires a great gospel to cover and 
soothe and satisfy a great soul. The fourth century 
furnishes us the testimony of one of these great 
spirits ; one who had read all the literature of his 
age, weighed all the philosophies, tested all the 
dogmas, tried all the theories and still was weary 
and dissatisfied. Having returned from Egypt he 
heard the common cry of the century : " The Chris- 
tians to the lions! The Christians to the lions!" 
Entering the Coliseum he saw 20,000 people gath- 
ered to witness the death of a Christian. He be- 
came absorbed in studying the singular confidence 
and courage of the followers of Christ. At last a 
wicket-gate opened and a young girl entered the 
arena. There was neither bravado nor terror writ- 
ten upon the face uplifted to heaven, but simple 
trust. A gate on the opposite side opened and a 



180 



THE GLORIOUS GOSPEL. 



huge, unfed, famishing Numidian lion appeared. 
Only for a moment was he awed by the calmness 
and self-possession of his victim, and then there was 
a quick spring, a crash and all was over. " What 
sustained this child ? What gave her such fortitude 
and resignation in the presence of death?" Such 
thoughts as these were asking to be answered as 
Clement left the Coliseum, now the scene of the 
wildest uproar and the most uproarious applause. 
" It must be the power of their supernatural God," 
was his half-un willing reflection. On his way home 
he overtook an old man and entered into conversa- 
tion with him upon the all-absorbing topic of the 
hour. " Ah," said the humble saint, " you know 
not the power of the Christian's Saviour ; " and in 
the simplest manner and fewest words told the great 
man of his conversion and religious experience. 
And there at the feet of the unpretentious, unlet- 
tered wayside saint, Clement, now known as St. 
Clement, found what the Roman, Grecian and 
Egyptian teachers had not even themselves yet 
learned. A great gospel for a great mind. 

But the glory is also seen in the harmlessness of 
this power. Power is not always desirable. We 
should dread the power of God were it not tem- 
pered with love and mercy. The cyclone, a symbol 
of power, is an object of terror. You have a little 
plant at your door and it is the object of your daily 
care, but an hour's absence, a sudden tempest, and 
it is swept away. That is power, but how awful. 



THE GLOKIOUS GOSPEL. 



181 



You see a little boy playing on a mound near the 
seashore, happy and gay. Ignorant of the tide, he 
plays on until his mound is surrounded with water, 
his peninsula changed to an island and he is unable 
to escape. He cries for help, but no help comes. 
He pleads with the sea, but it is inexorable. It 
gathers about his feet, his waist, his breast, and 
then he is mercilessly swallowed up. That is 
power, but how dreadful. There is no mercy in it. 
But the gospel is administered mercifully. I have 
read of a little child, burning with fever, sinking 
into the tide of death. 

" Mother, I must die, they tell me. 55 

"Yes, my child, but I trust you will go to that 
beautiful place." 

" But won't you go with me over those high 
mountains, mamma % " 

" My child, God has not called me." 

" Nor papa?" 

" No, we cannot go yet. 5 ' 

The child turned over and fell asleep. When it 
awakened a smile was playing over its beautiful 
wan countenance. 

"Mamma, mamma, I have been there, and oh, the 
pretty things in that home! I saw little Willie, 
and Aunty, and the great man Jesus said He 
would come and carry me over the mountain. 
Good-by, mamma ! " and he was gone. The power 
of the gospel. Adapted to the great philosopher ! 
The solace of the little child ! 



182 



THE GLORIOUS GOSPEL. 



All, my friends, such a gospel will be strength- 
ened by opposition. Let the priests and allies of 
Baal do their worst. Fire from heaven will swal- 
low them up ! Let the Syrian army surround 
Dothan. The host of heaven will rush out to fill 
the mountains with horsemen and chariots ! Throw 
the worthies into the furnace of fire. The form of 
the Fourth will appear ! Let the storm howl over 
the sea. Jesus walks the waves unhindered, turns 
them into granite pavement and rescues the dis- 
ciples ! Lock the jails ! God's earthquakes will un- 
lock them ! Banish to Patmos! The whole island 
will be thrust up into heaven and Johns will bring 
down Apocalyptic recollections ! Imprison John 
Bunyan. He will hurl the Pilgrim's Progress out 
at the window. Such a gospel will fill the earth. 
And now a few 

CONCLUDING THOUGHTS. 

What wonder the gospel has made such rapid 
strides ? Infinite power yoked with infinite love. 
I once stood and trembled beneath Niagara's thun- 
dering floods, for there was power unshackled. But 
the gospel is the loving God walking in the great- 
ness of His might, sweeping Jewish sorrows from 
the old world, wasting Roman avarice, and dissi- 
pating Grecian doubt ! To-day the gospel is mak- 
ing its way around the globe, following the sunshine 
with shouts of redeeming grace, recognizing no 
lands as foreign, no cities as alien and no souls as 
unsavable. Like poor Bartimeus by the cry of 



THE GLORIOUS GOSPEL. 



faith you may halt Jehovah's friend and receive 
His healing touch. "Ask, and ye shall receive } 
seek, and ye shall find ; knock, and it shall be opened 
unto you." 

But everything depends upon your relation to 
this gospel. Some see in it simply an angel in the 
sun bringing His rays to bear upon their unwashed 
records ; thus revealing to the world all their hidden 
secret sins. Others look upon it as an angel flying 
through the heavens crying, "Woe ! Woe, unto the 
wicked !" To both classes it is a gospel of terror. 
But if this " glorious gospel of the blessed God " is 
but accepted with penitent faith, it not only holds 
the lamp at the door of the heart until all inward 
corruption and outward defilement are exposed, but 
it also swings the golden censer of incense, filling 
the heart with perfume, as the propitiatory blood 
removes the last and least remains of sin ; and finally, 
standing in the gateway of heaven, invites us to 
forever abide in the security of that "Better Land." 
Yea, more ! It sends friendly conveyance which 
calls at every hamlet and every house throughout 
all the earth. It furnishes Elijah a chariot and 
horses and Lazarus an angelic escort for their con- 
voy to the Abrahamic abode in Paradise. What is 
this gospel to you? Does it mean nothing? Or 
does it happily mean everything ? I receive this 
" glorious gospel " and come to the beatific moun- 
tain where the pure in heart see God ! 



PAUL'S CONVERSION. 



Text: Bui the Lord said unto him, Go thy 
way, for he is a chosen vessel unto me to bear my 
name before the gentiles and kings and the children 
of Israel. For I will show htm how great things 
he must svffer for my name's sake. Acts ix: 15-16. 

Only a few peaks in the mountain range, attract 
the eye and rivet the attention. Even the proud 
Alps can boast of but three notable summits : Mont 
Blanc, Mont Rosa and the Matterhorn. Japan has 
but one notable height, the Fujiyama. The world- 
famed pinnacles can be enumerated in a single 
breath. All else is tame and hackneyed. The eye 
rests upon the ordinary elevation and the more 
ordinary plain with ennui and real fatigue. 

What the towering summit is to the mountain 
range, the great crisis is to the human life. Men 
attract our attention only when, in some respect, 
they tower above their fellows. Only at rare inter- 
vals do we find such men ; and when we do find 
them they are towering only at one or two points. 
At all other points they are on the " dead level." 
Demosthenes was only an orator ; Socrates simply 
a philosopher; Archimedes a mathematician. But 



Paul's conversion. 



185 



Demosthenes is mostly remembered by his oration 
on the crown; Socrates by his sublime death; and 
Archimedes by his discovery of the law of specific 
gravity. Only one crisis ; but a single towering 
summit. 

Our text refers to the first great crisis in the life of 
the apostle Paul. Though we catch a glimpse of him 
at the stoning of Stephen, he here first merges into 
full view. We see the brow beaded and corrugated, 
hear his wailing cry, and witness his tremendous 
agony. It was, in the profoundest sense, a conver- 
sion. It was more than an intellectual operation; 
it was a crucifixion and a resurrection combined. 
Yes, and an ascension, for Paul arose to walk in 
newness of life in a new world, with new 
environments and associations. 

It was an instantaneous conversion, though having 
antecedents we are likely to overlook. The work 
began at the stoning of Stephen. The seraphic 
countenance of that first martyr, his glorious prayer, 
his unearthly gentleness and compassion, his tri- 
umphant testimony made a profound impression 
upon the observing mind and susceptible heart of 
the apostle. "Lay not this to their charge," cries 
Stephen, and Paul feels how immeasurably superior 
he is to all his persecutors. "Lord Jesus, receive 
my spirit, 5 ' and his rapt soul enters the Holy of 
Holies. Though covered with blood and mangled, 
Stephen's body had all the grace of a king's son, and 
his face all the sweetness and beauty of an angel. 



186 



paul's conversion. 



Paul was smitten at heart. His own conscience 
began to feel the pricking of the Holy Ghost, and 
to mutter condemnation. Gamaliel's advice is now 
remembered : "Let these men alone. If this work 
be of men it will come to naught ; but if it be of 
God ye cannot overthrow it." In spite of every- 
thing the new faith was spreading and its disciples 
were rapidly multiplying. Light begins to stream 
into his soul. His false and artificial foundation 
begins to tumble. He is dissatisfied with himself ; 
then he is ashamed. With misgiving and inner 
disgust with himself, he starts to Damascus on 
another persecuting expedition, but he must needs 
lash himself into a fury in order to keep up appear- 
ances. Besides, he has a reputation for bigotry, and 
insane zeal and pride urges him to maintain it. Still 
in his maddest ravings, though breathing out threat- 
enings and slaughter, he sees the face of Stephen, 
and ever and anon he hears a voice murmuring, 
"Lay not this sin to their charge !" "Father forgive 
them, for they know not what they do." " Lord 
Jesus, receive my spirit." At last, unable to hold 
out any longer, in his heart he cries, "Light ! Light! ! 
More light ! ! ! Oh, that I were like Stephen ! 
Heaven help me." Then had God's time come. 
Quicker than lightning's flash the glory of the Lord 
swallowed him up. Smitten, blinded, overwhelmed, 
he cries to the One of whom he had been thinking, 
"Lord, w T hat wilt thou have me to do ?" 



PAUL'S CONVERSION. 



187 



But I remark 

I. 

JESUS WAS IN QUEST OF A MAN TO DO A GREAT WORK. 

The right man in the right place — ah, how rarely 
found. It was a rare and providential felicity that 
led the American colonists to place Washington 
at the head of the army at the very beginning of 
the struggle. In the Civil War of the Sixties the 
right man was not so easily found, It took all the 
telescopes of the Capitol three years to sight the 
Man of Destiny, Ulysses Simpson Grant. 

All the great civilizations center in a very few 
great men. John Long in his Beacon Lights, has 
thrown the history of the world on an illuminated 
canvas, in a few striking biographies. Read the 
life of Moses, the Law-giver, and you will have the 
most important epoch of Egyptian history. Pericles 
and Leonidas, Plato and Socrates shed no inconsid- 
erable light on the history of Greece. One cannot 
think of Csesar and Brutus, of the Tarquins and the 
Aurelii without thinking of Rome. The same is 
true of the French, Dutch and American Republics. 
Their history is epitomized in a few brief biogra- 
phies. 

The right man in the right place. How fortunate 
was England in 1640 to have a Cromwell ; in 1688 to 
be able to call a William of Orange ; at Blenheim to 
have a Marlborough, and at Waterloo a Wellington. 
How fortunate was Switzerland to have a Rudolph, 
a William Tell and a Winkelreid in the crucial 



188 



paul's conversion. 



crises of her history. How fortunate the cause of 
the Cross when Charles Martel and Charlemagne 
drove back and held at bay the crescent of Islam, 
and by the victory of Tours, especially, varied the 
whole drama of history in all its subsequent scenes. 
Constantine, Savonarola, Huss, Jerome, Luther, 
Latimer, Ridley, Wesley, Whitfield, Knox, Calvin 
were all raised up to meet great exigencies. For 
the same purpose Paul was raised up. Why he was 
not called and commissioned with the other apostles 
we do not know. Why he should have had a spe- 
cial baptism and ordination will perhaps remain 
forever enveloped in mystery. But his call and 
ordination were no more marvelous and unique than 
the ministry that was to follow, or the field in which 
he was to minister. 

" lie is to me a chosen vessel." " I will show him 
how great things he must suffer for my name's 
sake." 

God is to-day calling men, as truly and unmistak- 
ably as He called Paul. The ministry of our Lord 
Jesus Christ is a chosen ministry. The nature of 
the work to be done, the methods to be employed, 
and the relation of the ministry to the Holy Ghost 
are such as forbid the entrusting of the ministry to 
any other than those divinely called and appointed. 
The King himself dare not put on holy vestments. 
The Prince .Royal must not venture to lay hands 
upon the Ark. Only the spiritual Levite, who has 
had the Damascene vision and the third heaven 



paul's conversion. 



189 



ordination is qualified for ministry in the church of 
the First-Born. 

More than this : Gcd chooses His workmen and 
thus becomes responsible for the quality and quan- 
tity of work done. There is no excuse for an all-wise, 
all-powerful God calling an incompetent servant. 
And the servant is inspired to do his best and ut- 
most by the thought that He who is all-wise declares 
he is able to meet the loftiest requirements, and 
gain the approving smile of the King of Kings. 
But again : 

II. 

consider paul's qualifications. 

Paul was the only man in the Apostolate, per- 
haps in the world, qualified for the mixed work in 
Europe and Asia whereunto he was called. Let us 
briefly survey the field and take in the situation. 
There were three great civilizations at that time 
which were in many respects hostile to each other, 
though not necessarily so. 

1. There was the Jewish civilization. It was a 
semi-Theocracy. It was to ancient civilization 
what Romanism, and semi- Romish Episcopalianism 
is to modern ecclesiasticism. It claimed to have the 
true and only succession. What its hands had not 
touched and consecrated was as unclean as the con- 
tents of the cloth Peter saw in his Joppan vision. 
It was high church written in capitals and italics. 
It was aristocratic with a large A, bigoted with a 



190 



paul's conversion. 



very large B, and exclusive with an exceedingly 
large E. It was grasping, avaricious and vindictive. 

It was a most influential civilization. It had a 
great and romantic past, such as appealed to the 
imagination. Its galaxy of heroes was unequaled 
by any other people. Its tremendous achieve- 
ments had filled the world with wonder. Its lit- 
erature still charms the most dainty and erudite 
intellectual epicure after the lapse of forty or fifty 
centuries. It was therefore a most polite civili- 
zation. It was commercially wonderful. So great 
and universal was the prosperity, that the Hebrew 
language has no word for beggar. Having no beg- 
gars they had no use for the term. 

But it was peculiarly a religious civilization. 
They were tireless propagandists and princely 
proselyters. They were as narrow, sectarian and 
resolute as Mohammed. They were hot-headed, 
high-tempered and passionate- Their mission was 
to Judaize the world. To antagonize them was 
perilous in every way. 

Now Jesus desired a man who had been trained 
in the Hebraic faith ; who was thoroughly versed in 
all their sacred lore ; who could answer the inter- 
rogative, "Art thou a Hebrew V in the affirmative. 
Who, before the whole Sanhedrim, could say : " If 
any othei man thinketh he hath whereof he might 
trust in the flesh, I more ; circumcised the eighth 
day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, 
an Hebrew of the Hebrews ; as touching the law, a 



paul's conversion. 



191 



Pharisee; concerning the righteousness which is of 
the law blameless." Yea, more : u I am a Pharisee, 
the son of a Pharisee, and after the straightest 
sect I lived a Pharisee/' I come from the very 
heart of Israel, from its inmost and highest coun- 
cils, and I know whereof I speak. Such was the 
apostle Paul. No wonder Judaism dreaded him. 
No wonder they hated him as the devil hates right- 
eousness. 

2. Then there was the Grecian civilization. Here 
the ideal, in color, form, and thought, reached its 
rarest fruitage. Here the Iliad was born, and here 
Sappho lived and breathed his lyre. Here Sophocles 
and Euripides, Plato and Aristotle, and a multitude 
of the acutest minds crowned with all the graces of 
the intensest and minutest culture, wrought out 
forms of thought, systems of logic and philosophy, 
and masterpieces of literary art, so decked in the 
garniture of the purple sea, the many-tinted sunrise 
and sunset, and the glory of tropical climes, as still 
to cast a spell over us with their w r eirdand wonder- 
ful wizardry. They were material only in things 
spiritual. In color, form and thought, they sought 
with wild and mad abandon, the ideal Oscar Wilde 
poses as a Greek of the olden time, when he declares 
that there is no such quality as goodness. A book 
is good if beautifully written, elegantly bouad, and 
poetical in idea and expression, independent of its 
morals or immorals. 

And yet the Greeks were religious, though not 



paul's conversion. 



pious. They were so religious that when Paul vis- 
ited Athens there were more gods there than there 
were inhabitants Not satisfied with worshiping 
all the gods ingenuity almost boundless could de- 
vise, and fearing some deity had been left out, they 
erected an altar and dedicated it to "the unknown 
god," and there paid their vows at regular seasons. 
The Iliad of Homer deals with the Greek gods ; the 
dramas of Sophocles, Euripides, JEschylus and all 
the rest fairly swarm with furies or fairies, sent by 
the gods to curse or kiss the children of men. The 
loftiest philosophies were but ladders or stairs by 
which the builders were trying to climb up into the 
very presence of Deity. Athens was the real plain 
of Shinar, and the Greeks were the builders of the 
real Babellian tower. They represented the lofti- 
est possibilities of the human intellect, divinely en- 
dowed under the most favorable surroundings, and 
enamored of all that was ideal and majestic. 

Who could meet them and win them away from 
the pseudo-ideal, to that ideal which is true and 
eternal? Who could make them as spiritual in 
spiritual things as they were in things material ? 
Who could save them from the death of intellectual 
idolatry ? Certainly only one their equal in all that 
they esteemed highest. Did the apostle Paul 
measure up to this requirement ? Let us see. That 
he was born of superior parents is attested by the 
fact that his father was raised to Roman citizenship 
Tarsus was of sufficient importance to once entertain 



paul's conversion. 



193 



Caesar, in honor of which event its name was 
changed to Juliopolis. Augustus Caesar made Tar- 
sus autonomous in local government, and a later 
emperor advanced the Tarseians to citizenship. 
Here Cicero resided and found congenial society 
when governor of the province. It was a place of 
great commercial importance,but it especially gloried 
in its great men and seats of learning. Here was 
the home of Nestor, Athenodorus, Artemidorus, 
Diodorus, and Dionysides. Here were the greatest 
schools in the world. Strabo, the last writer to 
eulogize an Asiatic institution, declared the schools 
of Tarsus superior to those of Alexandria and Ath- 
ens. Here Paul lived and studied. Here he 
plumed his intellectual wings and soared with the 
boldest poetic, historic and philosophic spirits. 
Here he rivaled the Greek himself in subtleness, 
incisiveness, and logical and philosophical acumen. 
From Tarsus he went to Jerusalem where Gamaliel 
was his teacher and inspiration. Here he was per- 
fected in theology as a system and taught how far 
theology and philosophy could be harmonized. The 
keen incisive mind of Gamaliel had doubtless found 
many of the vulnerable points in the philosophical 
systems of the world. How long Paul drank in 
these stores of wisdom we do not know. But it is 
recorded that when he appeared before one of the 
highest Roman provincial officers he provoked the 
exclamation: "Paul, thou art beside thyself. Much 
learning hath made thee mad." What wonder the 



194 



paul's conversion. 



sages of the loftiest civilization in the world sat 
meekly at the feet of the young and impetuous 
Tarseian as he revealed to them their unknown God. 

I know what skepticism has to say ; that skeptics 
say: Who were Paul's Athenian converts? I know 
that they declare that Paul was not the equal of the 
erudite Greek because he won no famous philoso- 
pher to Christ. But the same argument would dis- 
count our Saviour's ability also. In Capernaum our 
Lord did not do many mighty works on account of 
their unbelief. It is one thing to convince a man; 
it is quite another to get him to act. Paul may 
have lacked persuasiveness ; but wisdom — Never. 

3. .There was also the Roman civilization. 
This was a civilization of brute force. It tolera- 
ted Jewish religion; it patronized Grecian culture 
and wisdom; but it ruled both Jew and Greek with 
a hand of iron and a coat of mail. The Roman 
excelled in but one of the loftier attributes, namely 
statesmanship. Rome was diplomatic. The Ro- 
mans had the gift that enabled them to unify na- 
tions and peoples. Regardless of the rights of others 
and destitute of ideality, they had that practical 
cast of mind that enabled them to give laws and 
compel obedience. The Roman civilization was 
military, legal, judicial, material, commercial, and of 
the earth earthy. To be a Roman, said Rienzi, is 
greater than to be a king ; that is, in the estimation 
of the Romans — and — Paul was a Roman. 

Behold, then, the wisdom of God in the selection 



Paul's conversion. 



195 



of Paul for this great field in both the Occident and 
the Orient, among both Jews and Gentiles, con- 
fronting the intensest religious bigotry, but destitute 
of piety ; the loftiest intellectuality but destitute of 
morality ; and the most gigantic civil and military 
power, but caring little for spirituality, Paul was 
by birth-right a Jew, by inheritance a Roman and 
by culture a Greek. 

But there were yet some other essential qualifica- 
tions for the arduous ministry and apostleship into 
which God proposed to induct him. Though a 
Jew, a Greek and a Roman, more yet was necessary. 

(1) A good physique. We have heard much 
about Paul's physical insignificance, as though he 
were a poor asthmatic, dyspeptic, consumptive 
dwarf. But if we follow him through the years of 
his ministry, traveling whole continents on foot, and 
sailing the seas by working his passage before the 
mast ; if we note the sermons he preached and the 
thirteen books of the New Testament he wrote; if 
we consider the number of churches he established 
and the amount of pastoral work he did ; if we bear 
in mind how he was starved, stoned, bruised, beaten 
and imprisoned, and then the only w r ay they could 
silence him was to cut off his head — with all these 
things reckoned, we must conclude that he had 
superb physical qualifications. The service of God, 
and especially the ministry of the Word, demands 
not only the loftiest spiritual and intellectual equip- 
ment, but also the most virile physical endowments. 



196 



paul's conversion. 



(2) Paul had an iron will. This was most 
essential. Willfulness is all right when in the 
service of righteousness. Was not Luther a man of 
iron will ? And do we not admire him ? And was 
not Wesley a man of iron will ? And do we not love 
him ? And was not Jesus the very impersonation 
of willfulness ? And do we not worship and adore 
Him ? It is not enough to be good. The sun and 
moon are equally good. But the moon is without 
will. So two men equally good, if one has a will 
and the other has not, in point of light and force 
and blessedness, may be compared with absolute 
accuracy to the sun and the moon. Paul was a 
glorious sun. 

(3) Paul had a new heart and a new love. 
Paul was to preach Christ whom ho had helped 
to crucify ; to love Him whom once he hated ; to 
worship Him whom he had ridiculed and blas- 
phemed. But before he could do this he must have 
a thorough reformation ; more, a complete regene- 
ration ; so complete as to make him a new creature 
in Christ Jesus. All his hatred, and bitterness and 
vengeance must by some divine alchemy be brought 
into the purest, strongest and most unsullied love. 
That which we love most, we are readiest to suffer 
and die for. 

"All thoughts, all passions, all delights, 

Whatever stirs this mortal frame ; 
Are all but ministers of Love, 
And feed his sacred flame. " 



Paul's conversion. 



197 



The attitude of Paul, after his conversion, toward 
Jesus, clearly reveals his undivided and overwhelm- 
ing love for Him, There was never a moment, after 
that event, no matter where or what the circumstan- 
ces, when he was unwilling to be crucified for Him, 
and did not count it a joy to suffer for Him, or for 
the advancement of His kingdom. Always, whether 
on land or sea, whether in dungeon, under the lash, 
pelted with stones, or on the beheader's block the 
whole outflow of his soul was : 

" Worship, honor, pawer and blessing, 
Thou art worthy to receive ; 
Loudest praises, without ceasing, 
Meet it is for us to give. 

' 1 Help, ye bright angelic spirits, 

Bring your sweetest, noblest lays; 
Help to ping our Saviour's merits; 
Help to chant Immanuel's praise !" 

Remark First: Who can tell what the result 
of one conversion will be ? Think of this young 
man ; despised and plotted against by the Jews, 
feared by the disciples, shunned by the great world 
at large ; himself somewhat weakened by an infirm- 
ity, tormented and agonized by a " thorn in the 
flesh," yet when created a new creature in Christ 
Jesus, made a son of God, and illuminated, 
energized and directed by the Holy Ghost, he 
revolutionizes the whole world. 

Think of Augustine ; drunken, debauched, licen- 
tious, he had but one thing to commend him — his 



198 



paul's conversion. 



saintly mother, Monica. Sitting beneath a shade 
tree in his own garden this text came to him : "Let 
us walk honestly as in the day, not in rioting, 
drunkenness and wantonness, but put ye on the 
Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the 
flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof." It proved the 
power of God unto salvation to his soul. He be- 
came God's mightiest earthly instrument and threw 
up bulwarks in defense of Christianity which 
all the battering rams of hell cannot even dent or 
scar. 

Look at Bishop Matthew Simpson. At a little 
camp meeting at Cadiz, Ohio, very unsuccessful, so 
they said, a little white-headed, low-browed boy was 
converted. Only a little boy they said — only a little 
hoy. But that little boy was heard to preach by 
more people and in more lands than any preacher 
that ever lived. Matthew Simpson, the clear- 
brained, sweet-spirited, golden-tongued servant of 
Christ, and Methodist Bishop. 

Who is that little chubby boy back under the 
gallery in that Wesley an chapel ? It is Sunday 
morning, but it is stormy and the preacher has not 
come. The few members present conclude they 
will have a prayer and testimony meeting. At last 
the leader invites the little chubby boy, sitting 
alone, to say something ; and upon his refusal, 
addresses a few words to him. The words led him 
to Christ. Who was the boy ? Charles Haddon 
Spurgeon, pastor of the largest Baptist church, and 



paul's conversion. 



199 



one of the greatest powers for good in the world. 
Oh, for power to lead men to Christ ! 

Remark Second: One glimpse of Christ and we 
love Him forever. Love becomes a consuming 
flame, destroying all that is evil within us and rav- 
ishing with unspeakable delight, all that is good. 
The exultant shout of the soul is : 

— " O, that the arms of love that compass me, 
Might compass all mankind." 

" For O, the Master is so fair, 

His smile so sweet to banished men, 
That he who meets it unaware 

Can never rest on earth again. 
And they who see Him risen far, 

At God's right hand to welcome them, 
Forgetful stand, of home and land, 

Remembering fair Jerusalem." 

May the Cod of Paul add His blessing for Christ's 
sake ! 



THE CHRISTIAN'S SECURITY. 



Text : But now, thus saith the Lord that created 
thee, Jacob, and He that formed thee, Israel, 
Fear not : for I have redeemed thee, I have called 
thee hy thy name; thou art mine. Isaiah xliii: 1. 

The Law and Testimony recognize the difference 
between the good and evil, the obedient and dis- 
obedient, those who by faith are, and those who by 
faithlessness are not, the children of the Most High. 
There are two kinds of providence, general and spe- 
cial. General providence is illustrated by that 
world-wide philanthropy noble spirits feel ; special 
providence by that closer and intenser love the 
noble spirit cherishes for his own kith and kin, who 
by lofty character and gentle deeds kindle the fires 
of deep and fervent affection, God cares for all, as 
the public-spirited citizen has a general interest in 
the welfare or the entire community ; but he espe- 
cially cares for those in whose faces he sees His own 
image. He causes the sun to shine on the good and 
on the evil ; He sends rain upon the just and upon 
the unjust — this is general providence. " He that 
believeth and is baptized shall be saved ; he that be- 
lieveth not shall be damned 55 — this is special provi- 



THE CHRISTIAN'S SECURITY. 



201 



dence. But not only shall it be well with the right- 
eous in some future dispensation, but here and now 
according to heaven's conception of what is true 
and good. 

But the Law and Testimony also define the 
righteousness of the King's children in such clear and 
striking colors as to render imitation or counterfeit 
impossible. " He that doeth righteousness is 
righteous." Promise or profession will not do. 
The tree is infallibly known by its fruits. So the 
man is infallibly known by his doings. He that 
dosth righteousness is righteous ; he that doeth not 
righteousness is not righteous. 

But the tares and wheat will not continue togeth- 
er always. One day there will be a separation, and 
though both have grown in the same kind of soil, 
air, light j warmth and moisture, side by side, they 
go into entirely different places. The one is 
garnered into the granary ; the other is cast into the 
fire. So God declares that the wheat and tares of 
human character, in the harvest fields of this world 
will not continue together forever. Though spring- 
ing from the same loins, and nurtured at the same 
breast, and living in the same community and with 
like environment the wicked shall go away into 
everlasting punishment but the righteous into ever- 
lasting life. " He that overcometh shall inherit all 
things ; and I will be his God, and he shall be my 
son. But the fearful and unbelieving, and the 
abominable and murderers, and whoremongers and 



202 



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sorcerers, and idolaters and all liars shall have their 
part in the lake which burnetii with fire and brim- 
stone which is the second death." 

Many and exceeding precious are God's promises 
to His children: " Fear not, I have redeemed thee ; 
1 that created thee and formed thee, have redeemed 
thee; I have called thee by thy name, thou art mine; 
When thou passest through the waters I will be with 
thee, and through the rivers they shall not over- 
flow thee ; By nature thou wast Jacob ; by grace 
thou art Israel. Once thou wast asupplanter, from 
henceforth thou shalt be a prince." Dwell thought- 
fully upon the name 

ISRAEL. 

There is often magic in a name. What a thrill 
sweeps through an American audience at the men- 
tion of Washington, Lincoln, Grant, Logan, Sheri- 
dan and others ! How England for all time to come 
will laud the name of Gladstone. Even Republican 
France applauds the name of Napoleon I, What a 
wizardry is woven about the names of Shakespeare, 
Milton and Dante, Leonidas, Miltiades and Win- 
kelreid, Homer and the great pagan poets and dra- 
matists ! At the mention of Jesus' name saints re- 
joice and devils tremble and fly. 

" Israel " is a glorious name. It is indicative of 
triumph on earth and in heaven ; it bespeaks favor 
with both God and men ; it is a badge of royalty. 
Though first given to Jacob, it comes by inherit- 
ance, to all of God's children. The name can never 



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203 



lose its significance and power. Of course a prince 
must have power — must prevail — and Israel is a 
prince. A prince not by some crumbling dynasty's 
decree, but by the authority of the eternal King of 
kings. We are told that in one of the early wars, 
the Christians, entirely unarmed, were attacked by 
fierce and relentless foes. What could the Chris- 
tians do? Apparently nothing. But one of the 
saints, as if by inspiration said : " Let's shout ' Hal- 
lelujah. '" And so they did. And the strange 
word meaning, " Praise the Lord struck the enemy 
dumb with terror and they made precipitate flight. 
You have read of the might of the Name on the lips 
of Cromwell's Ironsides. 

Since the day Jacob wrestled and was knighted, 
receiving a new name, we have grown until now we 
are a great host of Israels. We have become a 
house of princes. With association and multipli- 
cation have come might and dignity and honor. 
We are a great spiritual commonwealth. Though 
princes of many houses we unite under one Sov- 
ereign. Though diversified we are unified. We 
gain the strength and protection of organization, not 
only as an organization, but also as individual mem- 
bers of the organization, " In that older day, to be 
a Roman was greater than to be a king." In these 
latter days, to be a spiritual Israelite — a prince of 
the house of Christ — is greater and better than to 
wield a sceptre and sit encrowned upon a throne. 
We have the august protection and patronage of the 



201 



THE CHRISTIAN'S SECURITY, 



Creator of priDces; and besides, we have the associ- 
ate delights and fellowship of our spiritual kinsmen. 

Much is said about the security of lodges. So- 
ciety is honey-combed with them. Some of them 
are open to the world ; most of them are secret. 
Some of them are hoary with age ; others have 
scarcely emerged from their swaddling clothes. I 
have no criticisms to offer. Indeed, I belong to 
most of them. As a minister of Christ, I seek 
opportunities of doing good. I go out into the high- 
ways and hedges. If men will not meet me in my 
church, I will meet them in their lodges, and I will 
he heard. Why should not the Christian world 
capture the lodges for Christ by Christianizing 
them % But there is no security like that of the 
church ; there is no communion like that of God's 
saints ; there is no title so high as that of Israel, ex- 
cept the Name, high over all. 

"Jesus ! the Name high over all 
In hell, or earth, or sky; 
Angels and men before it fall, 
And devils fear snd fly." 

Such as are planted in the house of the Lord, 
they are His Israel. 

Pass on now to ponder the significance of the fact 
that 

ISRAEL IS A QUICKENED BODY. 

No man is so craven as to fear the violence of a 
corpse. It is the quickened body that is dreaded. 
Israel is mighty because it lives. Every member of 



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205 



this body lives. The Christian's hope is life; his 
security is the providential care of the heavenly 
Israel, and the communion and fellowship of all 
the Israels of earth. Satan dreads the living Israel ; 
the world is hushed into silence and awe, when 
Israel moves forward. 

We must not be deceived by forms and appear- 
ances. Fruit can be so counterfeited that birds 
will try to devour it. Not long ago we inclined 
the body to enjoy the rare fragrance of a lovely 
bouquet, when to our embarrassment we found it 
was composed of artificial flowers. The bee lights 
upon a bud, in quest of honey, that is made of wax 
and delicately colored. The frequenter of the play- 
house is treated to the sight of rivers covered with 
vessels, and the sight of mad storms trembling with 
thunder and livid with lightning. There is no river 
or storm there, though the semblance is complete, 
The inviting mirage upon the distant plain lures 
many a wanderer to his death. 

The form of godliness is one thing ; the power 
thereof is quite another thing. How many have 
only the form, and are entirely destitute of the 
power. How many are like the fair but fruitless 
fig-tree, bearing leaves, and leaves only. How many 
blossom with words and professions, but bear none 
of the fruits of righteousness. Now a member may 
have every appearance of union with the body of 
Christ, and yet have no vital union whatever — a 
load, a burden, a hindrance and nothing more. A 



206 



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limb that is paralyzed and apoplectic. A corpse has 
every form and appearance of a member of the fam- 
ily. It rests in the familiar robes of life ; on the 
fingers are jewels and on the breast the hurrying 
wheel of time ; on the lapel of the coat the favorite 
bouquet. But it is a corpse still. Life is gone; 
the eyes are rayless ; the lips are speechless. Dead, 
dead, dead! 

Ah, how sad a sight is the living corpse. In the 
church but dead to it ; professing Christ but dead to 
Him ; a member of a family but dead to its ^acred 
fellowship. 

" Ah, death in life, the days that are no more. 7 ' 

Now there are many who enter the church, and 
do as Christians do, live in the love and sympathy 
of Christian people, and restrained from all out- 
breaking sins by the ties of Christian association. 
But within they are of the earth, earthy. No holy 
fire glows upon the inner altar. The image of the 
Redeemer is not graven on the wall of the soul. 
The incense of heart-felt prayer is never offered. 
They are with Israel but not of Israel. They grow 
not in grace, they bear not the fruits of the Spirit, 
they reflect not the image and character of Christ. 
The spirit of the Prince is not in them. They are 
corpses and nothing more. As long as the churchly 
galvanic battery thrills them, they glow and leap 
and perform all manner of evolutions ; but when 
they are away from it they fall back spiritually 
dead — lifeless and inert. 



THE CHRISTIANAS SECURITY. 



207 



Quicken a body with the spirit of the Lord Jesus 
and it becomes mighty. Germany could not resist 
Luther ; Bohemia was a babe in the hands of Huss ; 
Italy trembled from the mountains to the sea when 
Savonarola spoke. Calvin at Geneva was taller 
than the Matterhorn ; John Knox was God's Prime 
Minister in Scotland, and John Wesley by the grace 
of God, built the beacon of spiritual liberty and 
attainment, so high that the whole world caught its 
beams and rejoiced. The world waits on tip-toe for 
other quickened Israels to lead her on to triumph. 

But, still farther remember that 

CHRIST IS THE ONLY SOURCE OF LIFE. 

In the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition, there 
was a magnet that would lift 1,800 pounds. It was 
a combination of 100 thin plates. No one possessed 
much power, but combined they were almost 
irresistible. Mighty was the power of these 100 
plates when touched by the great magnet and thus 
magnetized. 

So this body compact, called in these days Israel, 
is mighty when touched by Christ, the Magnet of 
Magnets. But the might is in the magnet, rather 
than in the body magnetized. Nor will any earthly 
magnet take the place of the great heavenly magnet. 
Lodges promise to do all things for men, but in the 
last extremity hold up their hands and confess their 
helplessness. Nations promise great things but fail, 
however desirous of keeping their word, by inability. 



208 



THE CHRISTIAN'S SECURITY. 



The law, be it ever so good, is not enforced and the 
subject suffers. Many have been and yet are being 
cut down in this country to make political capital 
or to satisfy paltry revenge. We recognize in the 
"body politic" a duty to protect its feeblest subject, 
though every man be drafted into service and every 
dollar be expended. This the citizen demands but 
does not always secure. But God in his precious 
book, promises safety and protection as King of all 
forces ; and saints expect all heaven, in j ustice to God 
and Israel, will see that promise fulfilled. 

Less than twenty years ago a man was captured 
in Cuba by some Spanish troops. He was tried and 
condemned as a spy. The day for execution came. 
The consuls believed him innocent and attempted 
to save him. There was no proof of innocence that 
the enemy would accept. 

The day came, the hour for execution fixed, men 
summoned. The English consul came forward and 
wrapped the man in England's flag, saying : " He 
was born an Englishman, every land protects her 
sons." The American consul followed with stars 
and stripes, saying : " He is an American by 
naturalization, America protects her sons." 

Then they said : " Fire ! if you will." But who 
dares fire upon the cross of St. George, or the stars 
and stripes of America ? He was safe in the folds 
of national protection. 

So when one of God's Israel is covered with the 
blood of Immanuel, and filled with the life of the 



THE CHRISTIAN'S SECURITY. 



209 



Holy Spirit, beware how you lay hands upon him. 
Remember Elisha at Dothan. Heaven's cavalry and 
artillery swept down to his defense. And the clat- 
tering of every hoof and the rattling of every artil- 
lery wheel declared in concert with all the rest : 
" Touch not mine anointed ! Lay hands not on my 
beloved." Remember Daniel. They would have 
lions devour him. But the mane of the burliest and 
most sullen lion was softer under Daniel's head than 
his mother's bosom. Deep was his sleep, beautiful 
his dreams, refreshing his slumbers. Jehovah giveth 
his beloved sleep. He giveth His angels charge 
over them. 

But once more I must remind you that 

CHRIST IS OUR ONLY CONFIDENCE. 

Many great leaders have won the confidence of 
their soldiery. How devoted were the Carthagin- 
ians to Hamilcar and Hannibal. They followed 
them across the seas and over the mountains, and 
amid swollen rivers and dreary plains, until they 
were mustered out by Death. With what devotion 
did Roman legions obey Caesar's commands. No 
wonder he was dreaded by the civil power at 
Rome. Brutus was but the head of a great body. 
How pathetic w r as the confidence of Bonaparte's 
men. Whether storming Joppa, battling at the 
Pyramids, or on European fields, they bowed before 
the great " Arch-angel of the battle field." But 
there was no less devotion felt this side the sea for 



210 



THE CHRISTIAN'S SECURITY. 



many of onr civil and military chieftains. Call to 
mind the careers of Washington, Scott, Grant, Sher- 
man, Sheridan, Logan, Siegel, Thomas and Hancock. 

But all these leaders were weak in two respects : 
their presence was necessary ; their careers were 
brief and ended in defeat. However noble in char- 
acter they were unworthy of boundless confidence. 
But Israel could walk through the depths of Jordan 
at overflowing, trusting in the invisible Jehovah 
who cleft the Red Sea, and the invisible Hand that 
stayed the torrent. They were as confident as 
though the waves had been bridged with iron and 
with adamant. Trusting in the invisible One, they 
feared no evil. They must have realized the pos- 
sibility of drowning; but they had that confidence to 
believe that if drown they must, it was best that it 
should be so. " Yea, though I walk through the val- 
ley of the shadow of death, 1 will fear no evil for 
Thou art with me." "For all things work together 
for good to those who love God." Even "to die is 
gain." 

When Chrysostom was brought before the Em- 
press to answer for doctrines he preached, she said 
to him : 

" I will banish you." 

" That you cannot do, for all climes are mine." 
" I will take your goods." 

" My inheritance is in heaven, where moth and 
rust cannot corrupt, nor thieves break through nor 
steal." 



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211 



" I will take your life." 

" That you have no power to do, for I have life 
eternal, and neither life nor death, nor things pre- 
sent, nor things to come, nor any other creature, can 
separate me from that." 

Here is perfect confidence based upon the con- 
scious presence of infinite power and wisdom. The 
child that has never discovered a weakness in its 
parent, has perfect confidence in that parent. Not 
until the mother trembles or shows fear, can the 
thunder or the lightning terrify. 

In a storm at sea, a child in its mother's arms is 
asked if he is afraid answers promptly: "No, father 
is at the helm." 

Thank God ! Christ is evermore at the helm. He 
speaks and the winds are hushed to zephyrs. He 
waves his hand and the waves slink away like beaten 
curs to their kennels. " He plants His footstep in 
the sea, and rides upon the storm." No barriers 
impede His progress ; no enemies defeat His pur- 
poses ; no power hurls Him back, or right or left. 
Rivers swollen, in the Danube country, held back 
the Czar's forces for weeks at the opening of the 
Turko-Russian war ; and but for winds and waves 
Napoleon might once have gained the mastery of 
fair Albion. But Christ's sea-tossed mariner con- 
fidently says: " He, whose I am, and whom I 
serve, stood by me in the night and said : £ Fear not, 
every man on board this ship shall be saved. There 
shall be no loss of life ; only the ship." With eye 



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THE CHRISTIAN'S SfeCtfKITY. 



of faith, or spiritual vision, Paul saw the great De- 
liverer and his confidence was stayed. Nor was 
that confidence misplaced. "So it came to pass 
that they escaped all safe to land." The rescue was 
complete and glorious. 

And now with a few remarks I close, 

1. Be sure you are in Christ. Hid with Him in 
the bosom of God your security, without, will be 
boundless. No arrow will be able to reach you. 
None of Satan's emissaries can lay hands upon you. 
A thousand shall fall at thy side and ten thousand, 
at thy right hand, but thou shalt not only be unhurt 
but also untouched. Every mountain shall be gar- 
risoned with unconquerable cohorts from heaven, 
and every valley shall be thronged with strength- 
ening and comforting angels. 

2. Be sure Christ is in you. " As a man think- 
eth in his heart so is he ; " " If any man have not 
the Spirit of Christ he is none of His ;" "Out of the 
fullness of the heart the mouth speaketh ;" " This 
generation draweth nigh unto me with their mouth 
and honoreth me with their lips, but their heart is 
far from me." In vain will you decorate the ex- 
terior, if within you there are dead men's bones and 
all manner of corruption. Cleanse your hearts, 
clarify your consciences, and on the highest and 
most glorious pinnacle of your soul enthrone Christ, 
Lord of all. Let the perfect exterior be but the 
reflection of the more immaculate interior. 

3. Be sure to persevere unto the end. The crown. 



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213 



the prize, and the reward, are at the end of the race. 
Pay comes when the work is done. The Judge of the 
race gives his decision, not in accordance with the 
beginning, but in accordance with the conclusion. 
"All's well that ends well." Judas made a brilliant 
beginning. So great was his integrity he was made 
the treasurer of the Saviour's funds. But, at the last, 
he suicided. Gehazi did well at first. He had the 
complete confidence of God's prophet. But he 
closed his career, under the curse of God, with 
leprosy. Solomon's morning and noon were resplen- 
dent with unparalleled magnificence and wisdom, 
but his eternity — who dare attempt to declare it ? 
God's admonition is : Be thou faithful unto death. 
Persevere unto the end. 

4. Beware of Self-conceit and Self reliance. 
Cling close to Christ. Beware of all inducements 
to let go of Him. They are Satan's guiles. Satan 
will pamper your pride. He will magnify your 
wisdom. He will try to make you believe you are 
a very paragon of intelligence. He will try to make 
you self-reliant ; to get you to show your independ- 
ence ; to induce you to depend upon self and turn 
your back upon the help of heaven. Beware ! Be- 
ware ! ! Do you not recall Moses when, without 
God's help, he would smite the rock and bring 
forth water ? Have you never read of the disciples 
who tried to cast out devils in the Master's absence % 
Have you heard how Peter sank into the water the 
moment he loosed away from the Master ? Are 



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THE CHRISTIAN'S SECURITY. 



you mightier than Moses ? Can you measure up 
to the might of the Apostles? Will you place 
yourself alongside of Peter ? Grant that you are as 
mighty as they were; then you are too weak to 
stand alone. They went down. Only omnipotent 
Arms could hold them up. Let this be your con- 
stant song and prayer : 

' 'Other refuge have I none; 

Hangs my helpless soul on Thee: 
Leave, O, leave me not alooe, 

Still support and comfort me: 
All my trust on Thee is stayed, 

All my help from thee I bring; 
Cover my defer sel ess head 

With the shadow of Thy wing." 

Thus abiding in Christ, and having Christ en- 
throned within, persevering unto death and relying 
wholly upon Him you can rest secure always, calmly 
awaiting your coronation, and knowing that all is 
well. Tour barque may sometimes be tossed on 
angry seas ; the winds and waves may be wild and 
high ; the night may be dark and cold, but remem- 
ber, your Father is at the helm, 

"Every human tie may perish; 

Friend to friend uufaiThful prove; 
Mothers cease their own t > cherish; 
Heaven and earth ? t last remove: 
But no changes 
Can attend Jehovah's love, 

4 'In the furnace God may prove thee, 

Ther-ce to bring thee forth more bright; 
But can never cease to love thee; 
Thou art precious in His si^ht : 
G jd is with thee, 
God, thine everlasting light.'" 



Debts and How to Pay Them. 



Text. And it came to pass when the vessels 
were full^thai she said unto her son, Bring me yet 
a vessel. And he said nnto her, There is not a 
vessel more. And the oil stayed. II. Kings, iv: 6. 

These words are recorded in the chapter of 
Elisha's private miracles, wrought in the interest 
of home and the domestic circle. The first of these 
has reference to the payment of an honest debt, by 
the widow of a godly man, a servant of the Most 
High, who in his last days, had fallen into financial 
misfortune. The law governing debts, under the 
old Athenian, Roman and Jewish regime, was most 
searching and often severe. And though the trend 
of the times, later on, was toward mercy, still the 
son of the man dying intestate was compelled to 
assume every iota of the parental burden, even to 
the most unequal, unjust and galling servitude. 

This poor widow was in a pitiable plight. On 
the one hand honor and law demanded surrender 
of her son to her husband's creditor; on the other, 
starvation stared her in the face ; for she was pen- 
niless and this son was her only support. Heaven 
only could help her, and to henven she fled for ref- 
uge. She knew Eiisha. Perhaps she had wit- 



216 DEBTS AND HOW TO PAY THEM. 



nessed his miraculous power. She believed in him. 
She believed in his God. Moreover, she believed 
that He who provides with such munificence for 
insect, reptile and fish, for bird, beast and man, 
must have stored away in some inexhaustible larder 
a reserve supply, equal to meeting even the most 
extraordinery emergency. It was incredible to her 
that God would be as improvident as her unfortu- 
nate, though well-meaning husband had been. Had 
her husband been as rich in all things as God, he 
would have supplied all the needs of his own ; but 
how much better is God than even her devoted 
husband ! 

Thus she reasoned. Her faith was firm and 
fixed. She would see Elisha. She would appeal 
to the Father, high over all. She would confide to 
Him all her troubles. She would ask for His guid- 
ance and His help. The result justified her faith. 
This event leads me to remark, first : — 

MEN INHERIT BOTH GOOD AND EVIL. 

This is true morally. From our first great-par- 
ents down, we are tainted with evil. We were 
conceived in sin and shapen in iniquity. The virus 
of sin courses our veins and poisons the fountains 
of our being, from the very beginning. We may 
disagree on dogmas, but we must all confess facts. 
There is a somewhat in the world called sin. 
Every man is conscious of having that somewhat 
in his bosom. But no man ever loved sin. He 



DEBTS AND HOW TO PAY THEM. 



217 



may have been enamored, for a season, of the 
fruits of sin, but never of sin itself. Sin itself is a 
ghastly thing, even to Satan himself. Hence no 
man ever acquired it. From his earliest recollec- 
tion he recoiled from it. And yet from his earliest 
recollection he was actuated more or less by it. 
But if it is not an acquirement it must be an inher- 
itance. 

This is also true physically. It is no wonderful 
thing for a whole family to die with the same dis- 
ease. Some families have weak eyes, others have 
defective hearing, others have cutaneous affections, 
others are consumptive. Honor should restrain 
some people from wedlock, or at least from becom- 
ing parents. Only a reckless, heartless person 
could enter into such holy and sacred relations, when 
the outcome would be an infliction of frightful ills, 
upon innocence and helplessness. 

But few things inheritable however, are more 
fraught with pain and anguish than debts, Horace 
Greeley well said : " For my own part, I would 
rather be a convict in the State prison, a slave in a 
rice swamp, than to pass through life under the 
harrow of debt. Let no young man misjudge him- 
self unfortunate, or truly poor, so long as he has 
the full use of his limbs and faculties, and is sub- 
stantially free from debt. Hunger, cold, rags, hard 
work, contempt, suspicion, unjust reproach are dis- 
agreeable, but debt is infinitely worse than them 
all. And if it had pleased God to spare either or 



218 



DEBTS AND HOW TO PAY THEM. 



all of my sons to be the support of ray declining 
years, the lesson which I should most earnestly seek 
to impress upon them is: ' never run into debt.'" 

The infamous system of slavery entailed upon the 
children of slaves many dark and grave misfortunes. 
But there were some things from which even they 
were exempt. Hunted, whipped, sometimes mur- 
dered, they were saved the torment and agony of 
debt. Nor did they know anything of the anxieties 
of those who fear their debtors will fail them, and 
hurl them into financial bankruptcy and dishonor. 
In the great panic of 1873 a very wealthy merchant 
who was doing a large credit business said : " Ah 5 
wife and I have scarcely slept for months, so wor- 
ried have we been, lest the failure of our debtors 
would prevent us from maintaining our credit and 
honor with wholesalers." 

I have read of a great sculptor, in the employ of 
a wealthy gentleman. The wealthy patron how- 
ever, discovered a falling off in skill with the 
sculptor. Enquiring of a mutual friend the cause he 
received this answer : " He is so harassed with debts, 
hisnerves are unstrung, and his hand and arm have 
lost their old-time grace and elasticity." The 
wealthy patron paid the debts and the sculptor's 
hand recovered its cunning. 

Debt is the great curse that it is, because it is so 
seductive and misleading. The vigorous, aggres- 
sive, high-minded man feels there is no peril. What 
are a hundred, a thousand, or ten thousand dollars 



DEBTS AND HOW TO PAY THEM. 



219 



to him ? He thinks, I can throw such things over 
my shoulder easy enough. I have no fear what- 
ever. He is right so far as the single debt is con- 
cerned. But debts multiply with great rapidity. 
And one debt somehow encourages the contraction 
of other debts, until, at last, he finds himself rob- 
bing Peter to pay Paul, and sooner or later Peter 
and Paul and their well-meaning destroyer all go 
to the wall together. 

You remember the story of the giant who fell in 
with a company of pygmies. He roared with 
laughter at their insignificant stature and their 
magnificent pretensions. He ridiculed with fine 
scorn and sarcasm, their high-sounding threats. 
But when he fell asleep they bound him with 
innumerable threads and when he awoke he found 
himself a helpless captive. So debts as small as 
pygmies may at last bind us in unbreakable chains 
and lead us away to the Babylon of destruction, 
leaving wives and children behind to suffer the 
consequences and cringe beneath the shame. 

But yOu say: Children no longer blush for 
insolvent parents, nor are they held responsible for 
their insolvency. It is true some are not embar- 
rassed by parental indebtedness. Indeed, I have 
seen those whom no amount of indebtedness, even 
of their own contracting, would embarrass. But 
these are the exception, thank God, and not the 
rule. Most men feel that the family name and 
honor must be kept unsullied and would rather suf- 



220 



DEBTS AND HOW TO PAY THEM. 



fer untold and life-long privation, than have one 
stain or shadow fall upon them. Especially is this 
true where the husband and father has been promi- 
nent before the people. His name and fame are a 
precious legacy which they cherish more than all 
the wealth of the mines of earth. 

The husband and father, to whom our text re- 
fers, was a godly man. The probabilities are he 
was in no sense responsible for the dire distress of 
his family. He had been self-confident and over- 
hopeful. Out of love for his household, and with 
no doubt of the successful outcome, he attempted 
more than he could possibly accomplish. His 
neighbors may have looked knowingly and wagged 
their heads. They may have predicted failure from 
the first, and by their predictions made his failure 
doubly sure. He was foolish about his family and 
was always trying to overdo the thing. But, before 
God, intense as is my hatred of debt, I would 
rather have the former as father, neighbor and 
friend than the latter, God save us from wise- 
acre pessimists ! God deliver us from the influence 
and presence of those who never see anything but 
crape, never hear anything but funeral dirges, who 
never expect anything but failure and ruin. They 
are worse than the lice that pestered Pharaoh, or 
the murrain that wrought such havoc among the 
cattle. 

There is rare grace, tenderness and subdued 
pride in the widow's address to Elisha. She said : 



DEBTS AND HOW TO PAY THEM. 221 

" Thy servant, my husband, is dead, and thou 
knowest that thy servant did fear the Lord, and the 
creditor is come to take unto him my two sons 
to be bondmen." He was probably one of the 
seven thousand who refused to bow the knee to 
Baal ; at least he was known to be a devout and 
consistent servant of the living God, for it was this 
well-known fact that gave the widow courage to 
appeal to the Prophet. ]STo effort was made to 
evade the debt. There was no railing at the law. 
There was a sweet and complete submission to the 
most searching and inexorable justice. The rights 
of the creditor are not denied or forgotten. But 
the honor, integrity and blamelessness of God's ser- 
vant must be maintained. God help us to duly 
appreciate this noble spirit ! 
But again : I observe that 

man's extremity is god's opportunity. 

" What have ye in the house ?" is the first proph- 
etic inquiry. Your liabilities are so and so ; 
what are your assets ? Subtract the one from the 
other and ascertain your deficit. What have ye 
with which to meet this bill now almost mature ? 
They answer : Nothing, save a pot of oil. Very 
well. The prophet does not depreciate the meager 
store. It is only a pot of oil, but it is a good 
boundary outpost from whence to proceed into the 
realm of the supernatural. It is enough to start 
with. 



222 



DEBTS AND HOW TO PAY THEM. 



Now, then, go and borrow vessels of your neigh- 
bors. Test your credit. Borrow all the vessels you 
can. Measure up to the full limit of their confi- 
dence. Borrow till their vessels or their faith in you 
will go no further. And having done your utmost 
close the door. We must not make a show of holy 
things. 

You will remember how Jesus propounded a simi- 
lar question to the disciples. When they would feed 
the multitude He said: "How many loaves have 
ye ?" What are your assets ? How far will your 
supplies go ? Here are several thousand very hun- 
gry people ; have you enough to go around ? At 
last the multitude was seated and the distribution 
of the loaves and fishes began. But just when their 
extremity ended, God's opportunity began. In 
other words, the natural is the only starting point 
into the supernatural. When the natural supply 
was exhausted, the supernatural gift was poured out 
in abundance. 

It is at junctures such as these that faith is thrown 
into the glowing crucible and tested. It must have 
seemed like child's play, or meaningless mockery 
to the family, to begin with that phial or pot of oil. 
How utterly impossible for help to come from such 
a foolish performance as that. There was not 
enough oil to fill the original cruse ; why empty it 
into another cruse ? And why go out and ransack 
the community for every available vessel ? Here 
was an example of real trust. The end was out of 



DEBTS AND HOW TO PAY THEM. 



223 



sight. The purpose was not apparent. The 
method was without parallel or logical sequence. 
Faith had to blindly obey the command. So all the 
vessels in the neighborhood were brought in to re- 
ceive the few drops of oil. But there was a marvel- 
ous increase ; not, however, before the last drop of 
the natural supply was exhausted. Yessel after 
vessel was rushed to the marvelous stream and as 
quickly as they were filled others took their places 
until every vessel was full to overflowing ; then the 
oil ceased. 

But the small natural supply was all-important. 
So we can never dispense with the natural, Man's 
extremity is as indispensable as God's opportunity. 
Man's own help when he helps himself is as impor- 
tant and essential as heaven's help. 

Talents never increase except by using. They 
can never be used by proxy. Elisha did not pour 
the oil ; it did not belong to him ; the reward was 
not to come to him. It was the widow's work ; the 
reward was to be hers ; she must do the work. We 
cannot eat by proxy, or sleep by proxy, or rest by 
proxy, or die by proxy. Likewise in the realm of 
mind : we cannot think by proxy ; we cannot hope 
by proxy ; we cannot aspire by proxy. It is equally 
true in the spiritual realm. Nothing can be done 
by proxy. We must do our own believing, our 
own praying, our own loving. If we would grow 
we must exercise. Talents multiply only with use. 

Here, too we learn another blessed lesson : G-od's 



224 



DEBTS AND HOW TO PAY THEM. 



gifts always surpass our capacity. Had the vessels 
held out and the widow's life and needs continued 
the oil would be flowing yet. God's resources are 
inexhaustible. Sun and moon and stars are exactly 
adapted to their mission. But if the field was to 
be enlarged God could multiply the shining orbs 
limitlessly and infinitely. So with the products of 
the field. Scientists sometimes try to scare us by 
making startling announcements. In so many years 
the forests will be gone, the coal mines will be ex- 
hausted and the fertility of the fields will be wasted 
and they will produce no more. Well, what of it? 
Suppose our fuel fails, cannot God kindle burning 
bushes that will never consume ? Suppose our 
natural water supplies are dried up by drouth, can- 
not God smite the rocks and make them gush 
forth ? Suppose the whole world becomes a barren 
and arid desert, is not God able to shower manna 
upon us ? Infinity belongs to God. 

So in the economy of grace. Why mourn in ter- 
ror of lions, and furnaces and irate kings ? He can 
fill the heart full of the oil of joy and gladness. Nay, 
we have His unbreakable pledge, given by His own 
Son : u He will give grace and glory ; and no good 
thing will he withhold from them that walk 
uprightly." But alas ! How many rob themselves 
of the joys of heaven through unbelief and trem- 
bling, and cover themselves with the scarlet gar- 
ments of a wicked and rebellious world. 

If that woman, clad in rich robes, is sure that her 



DEBTS AND HOW TO PAY THEM, 



225 



robes are the offerings of lawful love, and come 
from a pure and loyal heart, she moves in conscious 
delight. But if they come from licentious, sacri- 
legious hands and she accepts them, understanding 
all, then they are robes of shame. So are the gifts 
of God ; if supplied according to the riches of His 
grace in Christ Jesus, they are peace and joy and 
honor forever; but if they are secured so as 
to rob God and man for the sake of personal, self- 
fish aggrandizement they become garments of shame 
to the individual and of dishonor to the cause of 
Christ. But for the true heart, pure, devoted, con- 
secrated, sanctified, there is perfect peace and 
security. To all such the promise is : " Trust in 
the Lord and do good ; so shalt thou dwell in the 
land, and verily thou shalt be fed." 
But I am still further impressed with 

THE KIND OF VESSELS DESIRED. 

The command was to bring in empty vessels ; 
that is, vessels containing nothing whatever. Many 
have greatly misapprehended and hence misrepre- 
sented the thought of this passage. Upon this pas- 
sage many ignoramuses have found occasion to 
thank God for their ignorance. Yerily, they have 
much to be thankful for, but they choose the wrong 
passage as a justification for their glorying. Edu- 
cation and wisdom do not fill the mind, but rather 
enlarge and illuminate it and make it more capa- 
cious. One of the most teachable and receptive 



226 



DEBTS AND HOW TO PAY THEM. 



minds I ever knew, was the most splendidly cul- 
tured and educated. Not pre-occupied, but ready 
for instant occupation, seems to be the idea. An 
ignorant man, with a crude uncultured brain, is 
likely to be so filled with conceit, selfishness and 
superstition as to be pre-occupied against God. 
Such a mind cannot be filled ; it is already full. 
What God wants is vessels empty of all conceit and 
selfishness, pure and sweet and gracious, into which 
he can pour the oil of divine grace and helpfulness. 

We do not magnify culture or education to the 
detriment of the grace of God. We know that the 
grace and power of God are high above all earthly 
attainments. We have seen men in the pulpit with 
rare gifts, gather multitudes about them, but con- 
viction and conversion never attended their minis- 
try. Men were not even outwardly reformed. The 
desire even to do better was not awakened. What 
was the matter? The preacher was so set upon 
being entertaining,brilliant and applauded that there 
was no room for the Holy Ghost. God could not 
get into that mind or heart. Self crowded out 
everything and everybody, not excepting the King 
of Glory. 

When we can get into that frame of mind and 
heart that before God we can say : I care not how 
it goes with me so that Christ is honored ; or, as 
Mephibosheth said to David : " Let him take all, 
so long as my lord the King is come again in 
peace unto his house ; " and joyfully with John the 



DEBTS AND HOW TO PAY THEM. 227 



Baptist : " He must increase, but I must decrease" 
— then Zion can move gloriously forward. 

Two recent hymns have been ridiculed, even by 
Christians, that are worthy of immortality. A 
stanza of one of them runs thus : 

" O, to be nothing, nothing, 
Only to lie at His feet ; 
A broken and emptied vessel, 
For the Master's use made meet." 

That is as Pauline as anything in the New Testa- 
ment. Both planter and waterer are nothing. Tt 
is God that giveth the increase. The central idea 
of the other hymn is embodied in the concluding 
line of each stanza : 

" ALL OF SELF and none of Thee; 
Some of self an 1 some of Thee , 
Less of self more of thee 
None of self and ALL OF THEE." 

When a man reaches the latter point he is near 
the throne of Omnipotence, 

But I am once more impressed with 

THE IMPORTANCE OF PROPER GUIDANCE. 

Dazzling heights are perilous to the unfamiliar 
and untrained. Only three hundred persons have 
ascended the Matterhorn. The law forbids the 
ascent of any traveler without two guides. But 
sudden prosperity is the dizziest summit in the 
world. This widow realized it and at once sought 
more advice from Elisha. She realized her need of 



DEBTS AND HOW TO PAY THEM. 



help in prosperity as well as in adversity. But her 
wisdom was most uncommon. 

So perilous is suddenly acquired wealth, men are 
often rich only in proportion to their poverty ; they 
are strong only so far as they are weak; wise only 
in proportion to their ignorance. Lifted into the 
radiance of prosperity they are almost sure to strike 
rocks and coral reefs and go down : they are sailing 
an unknown sea. 

I remember a poor cobbler in the East who sud- 
denly became rich by inheritance. He shouted, 
threw down his tools, and went out into a new life. 
He found new friends who flattered him, and 
fawned upon him. They swarmed about him. 
They made him believe he was a very paragon of 
wisdom, elegance and grace. They bled him to 
death. Again, without a penny and almost without 
a friend, he was scourged back to his cobbler's 
bench. But fortune again smiled upon him. So- 
bered by adversity and suffering he received another 
large inheritance. When the news reached him he 
threw down his tools and with a deep painful sigh 
exclaimed : " Do I have to go through all that ex- 
perience again ?" 

I verily believe God ofttimes withholds what we 
are abundantly able to acquire, simply because he 
sees it would be our ruination. We are so selfish 
and foolish and sinful generally, any degree of 
prosperity would turn us all to leaf and stalk, and 
we would bear no fruit at all. We should adorn 



DEBTS AND HOW TO PAY THEM. 



229 



these decaying bodies of ours with the silly gew- 
gaws of this world, until we would become brain- 
less, heartless dummies, moved about in society by 
the jostling of the throng, and our only mission to 
simper and dawdle and exhibit our clothing and 
jewelry. I was somewhat shocked by Bishop Fos- 
ter a few years ago when in a speech before the 
laity he said : *' I sincerely hope God will keep the 
Methodist church poor;" but I now fathom the 
Bishop's meaning and feel like saying : " Send 
hearts and brains O, Lord, and then wealth if Thou 
seest best." 

One more thing in this connection impresses me: 

EVERY MAN HAS PLENTY OF CAPITAL 

to go into partnership with Christ. He who brings 
his powers and possessions into this divine partner- 
ship will find a marvelous multiplication and intensi- 
fication all along the line. Moreover, in this part- 
nership Jehovah supplies all the sinews of war 
abundantly, according to His riches in glory by 
Christ Jesus. Thank God, none are without at 
least a cruse of oil. One penny is sufficient for a 
business of untold millions. Even a child's hand 
may set the giant Corliss engine in motion, or 
touch the electric button which will result in a 
mammoth artificial earthquake, shaking a great city 
to its base. " If we suffer with Him we shall also 
reign with Him." 

The King of Poland, hearing that his friend 
Zelilans had lost his hand in war, sent him a hand 



230 



DEBTS AND HOW TO PAY THEM. 



of solid gold ; and Cassius gave Agrippa a chain of 
gold as heavy as the one with which he was bound 
down in the prison. But our God not only gives 
us measure for measure, but more. He compounds 
and multiplies by infinite-folds and eternity-folds. 
" For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, 
worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal 
weight of GLORY." 

Fear not ! He who spared not His own Son in 
order to accomplish our salvation, has promised 
with Him to " freely give us all things." " Your 
Heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all 
these things/' We have His unbreakable promise : 
" My presence shall go with thee and I will give 
thee rest." With this confidence David could say 
this side the flood: " Yea, though I walk through 
the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no 
evil ; for Thou art with me ; Thy rod and Thy staff 
they comfort me." And John, looking beyond the 
flood, cried out: i: And the Lamb which is in the 
midst of the throne shall feed them ; and shall lead 
them unto living fountains of water ; and God shall 
wipe away all tears from their eyes." And the 
rapt soul responds : 

1 4 Forever with the Lord 

Amen, so let it be; 
# # # # * # # 
" Knowing as I am known, 

Ho w shall I love that word, 
And oft repeat before the throne, 

Forever with the Lord. ,, 



SANCTIFICATION 



Text : And the very God of peace sanctify you 
wholly ; and I pray God your whole spirit and 
soul and body be preserved blameless unto the com- 
ing of our Lord Jesus Christ: L Thess. v : 23. 



This is a wonderful text. It is wonderful in three 
respects : First in itself ; second in its author ; 
third, in the character of those to whom it is ad- 
dressed. The author stands at the forefront of the 
Apostolic College : foremost in culture, in zeal, in 
self-abnegation, in cosmopolitan character, in world- 
wide, race-wide sympathies, and uniqueness and 
directness of call to the Apostolate. The people to 
whom Paul speaks were famous for their deep, fer- 
vent and unwavering faith, their intense and con- 
stant loyalty to Paul, and the Christlikeness of their 
daily lives, instant in season and out of season, 
doing with their might what their hands found to do. 

The text contains three great truths: First, it 
declares that man has a three-fold nature; second, 
it declares God's faithfulness and ability to fulfill all 
He has promised to do, in the gift of an omnipotent 
and uttermost Redeemer ; and third, it implies the 
attainability of physical, intellectual and spiritual 



232 



SANCTIFICATION. 



sanctification in this life, even in this place and in 
this hour. 

"But what do you mean by sanctification ?" is a 
question that goes up from every heart, probably, 
in this audience. Perhaps no doctrine has been 
more caricatured by the outside world, and more 
shamefully misrepresented by well-meaning but 
misguided professors than this doctrine. But this 
is not in the least surprising. Only precious 
things tempt the counterfeiter. Diamonds and 
gold, the two chief commodities of wealth and 
beauty, have countless imitations and misrepresen- 
tations. Even experts in lapidism and metallurgy 
are often deceived. Look at the science of medi- 
cine. It is only second in sacredness and benefi- 
cence to the holy ministry of the Word, yet quacks 
swarm about it like the innumerable insectivorain 
a glorious summer evening sunset. If we were to 
judge the science of healing by its quacks and 
impostors, as so many people, even physicians, some- 
times are disposed to judge Christianity, we would be 
compelled to declare the whole system of medicine 
to be pure and unadulterated hum buggery, and 
every doctor of medicine an unblushing and con- 
scienceless humbug. But this we would not think 
of doing. Sanctification as a doctrine, meets all the 
requirement of the intellect; as an experience^ 
measures up to the highest aspirations of the 
immortal spirit. It is the crown jewel of experience ; 
the keystone of the royal arch; the summum 



SANCTIFICATION. 



233 



bonum of Christ's redemptive work. Men become 
fanatical regarding it, because it does so much for 
them, lifts them so high and leads out to such dizzy, 
dazzling heights they are swept away in a tempest 
of ecstasy. 

In the discussion of this great doctrine let me call 
your attention 

I. 

TO SOME OF THE MISTAKES OF PROFESSORS. 

I call God to witness that the only motive I have 
is to shed light upon this precious doctrine, assist 
God's dear children into its enjoyment, and increase 
the glory of the Father and of His Son, Jesus Christ. 
What are some of the mistakes of professors ? I 
answer : 

1. Claiming perfection of conduct. This is 
fanaticism gone mad. Conduct is based upon intel- 
lectual apprehension of what conscience recom- 
mends. To have perfect conduct, perfect intellect- 
ual apprehension is necessary. In other words, one 
must be infallible. But we know by induction 
that no man is infallible. Even the Pope of Rome 
gives a sly wink and hums a soft air when people 
speak of his infallibility. The holiest, the wisest, 
the saintliest man is liable to make mistakes. Sancti- 
fication never results in infallibility. 

2. Claiming exemption from temptation. Here 
again, many of God's children, are led astray by the 
devil. Was not Abraham tempted ? And all the 



234 



SANCTIFICATION. 



patriarchs and prophets ? Were not the holy angels 
tempted ? Nay, was not the incarnate Christ 
himself tempted? Moreover exemption from 
temptation implies the impossibility of falling. 
Temptation must always precede transgression. 
Without temptation man can no more sin, than he 
can ignite powder by dashing water on it, or melt ice 
by keeping it 30 degrees below zero. Adam and 
Eve, with a perfection in every respect beyond what 
we can achieve this side the flood, were not only 
tempted but overcome. Patriarchs and prophets 
went down the same dark and dolorous road. Even 
the glorious angels were infected and went down 
into everlasting death. Which of you has attained a 
loftier grace than that possessed by those who not 
only were sinless, but never had sinned, and whom 
God honored as members of His own immediate 
household ? 

3. Claiming exemption from all work. There 
are those who claim that nothing more remains for 
them to do. They sing the hymn, " Jesus paid it 
all," with quite a different interpretation than the 
one in the heart of the writer of it. They have no 
more struggles or conflicts. When Paul said : 
" Work out your salvation with fear and trembling," 
he simply referred to those who persist in being 
only justified. When Peter gave the exhortation : 
" Grow in grace," he was urging people on up to the 
sublime heights of the sanctified state. 

This is not only lacking in Biblical proof, but also 



SANCTIFICATTON. 



235 



in common sense. For sanctification does not re- 
lease a man from watchfulness and struggle but in- 
tensifies and redoubles both. Neither does sanctifi- 
cation end growth and development. There is al- 
ways room for adding to the quantity and intensity 
of our graces. One drop of water is not the ocean ; 
but it is as perfect, as far as it goes, as the ocean. 
One ray of light does not constitute a sun ; but it is as 
perfect as the sun. The babe is not a man ; but it 
is as perfect a human being as Hercules or Samson. 
Heart purity is one thing ; heart maturity is quite 
another. Purity is attainable instantly ; maturity is 
the work of time, if not eternity. Many of our dear 
people confound purity and maturity. They claim 
maturity when they mean purity. They are perfect 
in the sense that a babe is perfect ; they can never 
be more perfect, any more than the babe can ever 
be more human ; but they can ripen and richen and 
grow and develop. Can infinity be exhausted 
instantly ? Can finity ever exhaust infinity? 

One more error remains to be noted, and a very 
common one, too : 

4. Claiming that conversion covers the whole 
ground. But one question will reveal the fallacy 
of such an idea. Are not all our blessings accord- 
ing to our faith ? No person can receive a bless- 
ing until his faith grasps it ; and with most people 
coming to the Lord Jesus Christ for conversion, 
the burden that oppresses them is that of sin, and 
the cry is not: " O, Lord, sanctify," but " O, Lord, 



236 



SANCTIFICATTON. 



forgive." And the gift and grace are " according to 
thy faith," The shout of the new-born soul is over 
sins forgiven and not over love perfected. Con- 
demnation removed, a person properly instructed 
may just here pass at once up into a sanctified 
state. The church at Thessalonica had previously 
been converted. Paul addressed them as " saints," 
and yet he asks this grace for them. Their faith 
had not grasped this privilege. Though their faith 
had been spoken of throughout all the world. (1- 
chap. 1-2-3. 7 8.) 

Now for those who, having been converted and 
justified, Paul prays, "may the very God of peace 
sanctify you wholly." 

Some say, " I have never seen any one who ex- 
emplified this doctrine," That is no excuse for me. 
If God demands it at my hand, and in my life, it 
makes no difference with my responsibility whether 
others heed or reject the call. "Be ye holy, for I 
am holy," is a command we cannot deny without 
great risk. When Peter asked the Master in re- 
gard to John, "And what shall this man do?" 
Jesus gave to him and to us all, a motto for every- 
day life : " What is that to thee ? Follow thou 
me." This is the true higher life — the endeavor to 
walk in Christ's footsteps. We dishonor our pro- 
fession when we inquire, " What will this one say ?" 
or " What will others do ? " The Master says, 
" What is that to thee ? Follow thou me." 

But are we not hasty in judging that none have 



SANCTIFICATION. 



237 



received this grace ? We read of Noah that " he 
was a just man and perfect in his generation accord- 
ing to the light that he enjoyed. We read of Job 
that " he was a perfect man, and eschewed evil." 
Again we read of the father and mother of John 
the Baptist, that " they walked in all the ordi- 
nances of the Lord blameless." Paul says : "Let 
us, therefore, as many as be perfect be like mind- 
ed." And you and I, if we were not criticising, 
would confess that we have known many, and have 
sat at their feet, whose lives are hid with Christ in 
God, whose heart life knows no changes of season 
or place, who give evidence that they have been 
with Jesus and have learned of him the secret of 
holy living. 

The Psalmist calls upon the world to mark the 
perfect man, behold the upright, for the end of 
that man is peace. 

Mr. Moody tells a good story of an infidel sports- 
man who said he had been in India four years 
without seeing one Christian convert. " Ah, 9 ' said 
a gentleman ; " what were you there for ? " "I was 
there hunting tigers," was the reply. "And did 
you find any ? " 44 O yes, plenty of them." " Well, 
sir," continued the gentleman, " I was in India 
twelve years and never saw one tiger." " Why ! " 
said the infidel sportsman, " What were yon look- 
ing for ? " " I was looking for Christian converts." 
" And did you find any ? " " Yes, sir ; plenty of 
them !." Men, as a rule, find what they earnestly seek. 



238 



SANCTIFICATION. 



Let us then remember, once for all, that in this 
world, we can never be perfect in knowledge, or 
judgment, or conduct; that Adamic and angelic 
perfection are beyond our loftiest grasp ; that ex- 
emption from work, temptation and struggle are 
Utopian dreams, inspired by the fumes of the cald- 
ron into which Satan casts his wizard spell ; that 
maturity in things spiritual, is no more attainable 
instantly, than in the case of the new-born babe. 
In what respect, then, may we he perfect ? I 
answer : In love ; in obedience ; in constant conform- 
ity to the Divine will ; in absolution from sin and 
its punishment, guilt and its shame ; in freedom 
from all inclinations and desires sinward. In other 
words, it is the perfection of the heart rather than 
that of the intellect — a perfection of love, of mo- 
tive, of intent. It is being filled with the fruits of 
the Spirit — love, gentleness, meekness, patience, 
long-suffering, and manifesting them in our daily 
contact with our enemies, our slanderers and our 
betrayers. In a word, it is being like Christ, save 
in those attributes that constituted His Deity. 
This is Biblical sanctification. 

Having noted a few of the errors of some who 
profess this glorious experience, let us 

IL 

CONSIDER SOME OBJECTIONS URGED, 

Here again I must remind you that I am actuated 
not by a love of controversy and bickering, not by 



SANCTIFICATION. 



239 



a desire to rebuke or be captious ; but solely because 
I want to be helpful to my brethren, and advance 
Christ's cause and Kingdom, What are some of the 
objections urged ? 

1, It is simply a Methodist doctrine. Indeed ! 
Have not Methodists as good a right to peculiar 
doctrines as Baptists, Presbyterians and Lutherans ? 
Which of these churches has a larger membership ? 
A larger constituency ? A larger income ? More 
converts per annum ? More missionaries in pagan 
lands? More institutions of learning? More men 
of wide, deep and thorough scholarship ? A richer 
galaxy of saints, heroes and martyrs ? The splendor 
of her learning, piety, great men and marvelous 
achievements have filled the world with enthusiastic 
wonder and amazement. But though Methodism 
formulated the doctrine and is the chief preacher 
and experiencer of the blessed grace it is a part of 
the faith once delivered to the saints and is the 
common heritage of the great Church Universal. 

2, Its unattainability. Does not God say : " Be 
ye therefore perfect ?" And does He not command : 
" Be ye holy, for I am holy ?" Has not the injunc- 
tion gone forth : " Follow peace with all men, and 
holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord ? " 
And are we not taught to pray daily, saying : "Thy 
kingdom come ; Thy will be done on earth as it is in 
heaven?" Thus God commands perfection here 
and now. Will you charge God with requiring 
impossibilities from those whom He loves and for 



240 



SANCTIFICATION. 



whom He freely gave His only begotten Son ? God 
save us from such soul-destroying impiety. 

This is one of the most perilous of all objections. 
It is in direct antagonism to the plain and emphatic 
teaching of the Scriptures. It cries : 66 Peace ! 
Peace when there is no peace. It excuses un- 
cleanliness and disobedience. It welcomes tempta- 
tion as a necessary evil, and tolerates ordinary sins 
as matter of course. To quit serving the devil en- 
tirely, in their view, is an absurd idea ; absurd be- 
cause impossible, and rendering his service excus- 
able. 

3. Though it is attainable, it is only at death or 
at the Judgment. In other words, Christ is not 
omnipotent. He is not able to save unto the utter- 
most. He cannot forgive all our sins, or cleanse us 
from all unrighteousness. It is a mistake to believe 
with Isaiah and David, that the crimson-stained and 
scarlet-dyed, may be washed whiter than snow. 
John was greatly mistaken when he spoke of 
Christ destroying the works of the devil ; and Jesus 
himself slipped into a lapsus linguae when he said : 
"Be of good cheer! I have overcome the world." 

Moreover, they dishonor Christ, by making death 
mightier than He. Or if it be said, it is Christ who 
does the work at death, then Christ is dishonored 
in that He is powerless until death comes and ren- 
ders it possible for Him to do what He so longed to 
do before. 

But all these objections vanish in thin air before 



SANCTIFICATIOISr. 



the august light of the Word of God. We are to be 
justified and sanctified, forgiven, adopted and 
cleansed, we are to perfect holiness in the fear of 
God ; have clean hands and pure hearts and spotless 
garments ; be made perfect in love, motive and de- 
sire, be filled with all the fruits of the Spirit — 
HEEE and NOW. 

But a vital question awaits us : 

III. 

HOW IS THIS EXPERIENCE OBTAINED ? 

Sanctification implies the action of two parties : 
The Sanctifier and the sanctified, or the one to be 
sanctified. The operation itself is two-fold. We 
are to separate ourselves from sinful indulgences; 
from all that is wrong in the sight of God. This 
is the first thing to be done and is accomplished by 
the volition of the will. God said to Israel before 
Ai : "Sanctify yourselves." Israel could not pre- 
vail against their enemies on account of the accursed 
thing, known only to Achan and his household. 
We are to sanctify ourselves — cleanse ourselves 
from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit. But we 
must go further than this. Having a clean bill of 
health from the Lord, that is, having every sin for- 
given and every stain washed away, we are then to 
present ourselves " a living sacrifice, holy, accepta- 
ble unto God." This we could not do prior to our 
conversion : First, because a dead man is incapable 
of doing anything at all; second, because a dead 



SANCTIFICATION. 

sacrifice would not be acceptable, and prior to con- 
version all men are dead in trespasses and in sin ; 
and to this we must add a full-orbed faith, a faith 
based upon what He has already done for us. We 
believe He is able to complete what He has so suc- 
cessfully begun. Then goes up the prayer : 

4 O, that in me the sacred fire 
Might low begin to glow, 
Burn up the dross of base desire, 
And make the mountains flow. 

"0, that it now from heaven might fall, 

And all my sins consume! 
Come, Holy Ghost, for Thee I call; 
Spirit of burning, come. 

"Refining fire, go through my heart; 
Illuminate my soul; 
Scatter Thy life through every part, 
And sanctify the whole. 

"My steadfast soul, from falling free, 

Shall then no longer move, 
While Christ is all the world to me, 
And all my heart is love/' 

Then and there the mighty work is wrought. 
Then begins the work of repenting, enriching and 
maturing. But the consecration must be kept com- 
plete, and the mind, heart and energies undi- 
vided, or the gift so precious will be forfeited. Said 
a prisoner to Dr. Doddridge, by whose influence he 
was being released : 16 Every drop of my blood 
thanks you. 5 ' And so we must continually say to 
God : " Every power of my mind, every faculty of 



S ANCTIFIC ATTO N . 24 3 

my being, every act of my life, I consecrate to Thee 
and to Thy service." Lady Huntington gives an 
account of a dinner when the great Rothschild was 
her guest. He talked of his wonderful wealth and 
said he had taught his sons to perpetuate his fame. 
She ventured to remark : "I hope you have not 
omitted to prepare them for a world beyond." He 
replied : " I cannot afford to speak a word to them 
about another world ; it would divide their energies 
and divert their attention." Such are the de- 
mands of men. 

And so with the demands of Christianity. He 
who would obtain the " pearl of great price," sold 
all that he had and went and bought it. He who 
would obtain "the far more exceeding and the eter- 
nal weight of glory," must make a complete conse- 
cration. The ways in which we come to this point 
may be different; the time may be longer or 
shorter. One may see one thing after another to be 
wrong, and give them up one after another. In the 
case of another it may seem to culminate in one 
great duty, in bearing some heavy cross ; and com- 
ing at once to the point, he passes through the 
struggle. I go into the woods with a companion. 
He cuts a hundred sticks weighing one pound each, 
and I cut one weighing one hundred pounds. He 
puts the one hundred sticks on his shoulder, and I 
put the one on mine. As we travel, he throws his 
aside one by one, till at last he has none. I, on the 
other hand, carry mine as far as I can, till at last, 



244 



SANOTIFICATION. 



overcome, I lay it down. If you should ask where 
he left his burden, he could not tell you, but I could 
tell you just where I left mine. When we come to 
this point, and have thus sanctified ourselves, we 
may say : 

" Tis done, the great transaction's done, 
I am my Lord's, and He is mine." 

But did we not do all of this in justification ? I 
think not. 

When was it possible for the prisoner to thank 
Doddridge with every drop of his blood ; before or 
after his pardon '( 

When is it possible for us to consecrate our bodies 
a living sa< rifice unto God ; before he hath wrenched 
us from death in sin, or after we have a life to con- 
secrate ? Bishop Taylor asked : " What has a pris- 
oner to offer V He cannot even make a will, for 
he is before the law a dead man. As children liv- 
ing in the interest of sin, we were dead. Therefore 
we could not make the consecration necessary to 
sanctification. But you he hath quickened. There- 
fore it is your reasonable service to consecrate this 
new life to him in everlasting covenant ; you have 
something now to offer ; until this be done none 
need expect much abiding peace or constant use- 
fulness. 

The minute the consecration is complete that 
minute we can say : 



SANCTIFICATIOJST. 



245 



"Just as I am, and waiting not 
To rid my soul of one dark blot, 
To Thee whose blood can cleanse each spot, 
0, Lamb of God, I come ! I come ! 

"Just as I am— Thou wilt receive, 
Wilt welcome, pardon, cleanse, relieve ; 
Because Thy promise I believe, 
O, Lamb of God, I come ! I come ! 

"Just as I am—Thy love unknown 
Hath broken every barrier down; 
Now to be Thine, yea, Thine alone, 
O, Lamb of God, I come! I come !" 

Then God will do His work. He will sanctify 
us. He will set us apart for Himself. " The Lord 
hath set apart him that is godly for Himself." " The 
Lord will sanctify unto Himself a peculiar people." 
This He does by truth. The truth is the great 
separator. " If ye abide in me and my words abide 
in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be 
done unto you." 

Having placed ourselves in the hands of God, we 
are brought face to face with truth for God is truth. 
Many a good man has felt with Isaiah, Job and Paul : 
" I am a man of unclean lips." " I abhor myself, and 
repent in sackcloth and ashes." " I know that in me, 
that is in my flesh, dweileth no good thing." This is 
the force of truth upon a consecrated heart. When 
truth is the all-filling force of being, man will not 
sin against it. 



246 



SANCTIFICATION. 



' Here I give my all to Thee, 

Friends, and time and earthly store; 
Soul and body Thine to be, 
Wholly thine for evermore. 

t% Thine would I live, Thine would I die, 
Be Thine through all eternity; 
The vow is past beyond repeal, 
And now I set the solemn seal." 

Then we are cleansed by the blood of Jesus. 
Blood used here figuratively for life. The life of 
Christ flows naturally into the life of the man, who is 
set apart or grafted into the living vine. " I live, 
yet not I." 

We say the soldier shed his blood for his nation ; 
he dies in the nation's interests. 

Christ laid down His life. Shed His blood. The 
blood of Christ atones for the past and covers it. 
The life of Christ inspires the present. There is 
much theology in Isaac Watt's hymn: 

"Much of my time has run to waste, 

And I, perhaps, am near my home, 
But He forgives my follies past, 

And gives me strength for days to come." 

The wisdom of this prayer is apparent. God will 
set us apart for Himself. 

In the days of the Roman Empire it was accounted 
a sin to wear a ring with the image of Augustus upon 
it in anyplace of wickedness. How careful should the 
Christian be where he carries the image of Jesus ! I 
think if he were thoughtful on this point, he would 



SANCTIFICATION. 



247 



not be found in theatres, Sunday night rehearsals 
and midnight balls He would seek those things 
" Where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God." 

THE WORLD RIGHTFULLY DEMANDS IT. 

The world demands, and that rightfully, that I 
should be a holy man. If we offer them Christian- 
ity, they have a right to ask what it will do for 
them. It will bring peace and contentment. When 
we look upon the busy life of the believer, we do 
not always see the traces of this peace. The fire that 
refines, brings to the surface the dross ; the gold and 
silver fall to the bottom. The Christian is in the 
state of trial and discipline. We know that the sea 
is lashed into the great billows and angry foam by 
the hurricane only upon the surface. There is a 
point not very far down where there is neither rip- 
ple nor motion. So with our lives. There may be 
ripples on the surface, but if our hearts are fully 
consecrated, there will be the inward peace like the 
serene ocean depths to which the influence of the 
wild winds and waves above can never come. 

IT IS THE ONLY PASSPORT INTO THE HOLY OF HOLIES. 

Without this holiness no man can see God. This 
is according to the fitness of things. Amiability 
admits one to the society of the amiable. Educa- 
tion admits to the society of the educated and culti- 
vated. Wealth admits to the society of the wealthy. 
Profession admits to the church. Possession alone 
admits to the Holy of Holies. Argument may be 



248 



SANCTIFICATION. 



overthrown, persuasion resisted, appeal scorned, 
but holiness is truth embodied. You may as well 
try to check an earthquake as to try to destroy a holy 
man's influence. It will go forth like the spring 
upon the mountain's side — a perpetual source of 
refreshment and blessing to all around, manifesting 
itself in gentleness, love, kindly deeds, and helpful 
acts. May God help us to rise to the privilege of 
full consecration, and enter into that experience 
which is abiding ! 



A JOYFUL DEDICATION. 



Text : And the children of Israel, the priests 
and the Levites, and the rest of the children of the 
captivity, kept the dedication of this house of God 
with joy. Ezra vi : 16. 



The dedication of the Lord's house at Jerusalem, 
in the sixth year of the reign of King Darius, was 
an occasion of great joy to the Jews. The captivity 
from which they had just returned had been most 
galling and painful. Heavy had been the tasks, 
and shameful their humiliation. What cared a 
pagan potentate and people, whose slaves they had 
become by conquest, for the royal purple of their 
ancestry and the glory of their achievements ? 
What cared the worshippers of Dagon and other 
man-made gods for the worshippers of the one, 
true, and only living God — God high over all? 
Bitter were the taunts, no doubt, and vile the 
epithets heaped, by blasphemous mouths, upon the 
descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Dark 
and agonizing had been the night of their bondage, 
and bitter the cup of their captivity. " By Babylon's 

*Preaohed at the opening of Wicker Park M E. Church, 
Chicago, 1888. 



250 



A JOYFUL DEDICATION. 



stream we sat down, yea, we sat down and wept," 
is their own account of their midnight anguish. 
And when, urged by their tormentors to sing one 
of the peculiar songs of their native land, as we 
used to ask our slaves to sing, the exiled captives 
far from the graves and altars of their sires would 
exclaim : " How can we sing the Lord's songs in a 
strange land ?" 

Countryless, homeless, and friendless they longed 
for the courts of Jerusalem, and the worship of the 
temple with its hallowed altars and its sacred, 
symbolic fire. But hope deferred had made the 
heart sick. Many, yes multitudes, of their most 
devout spirits, dear to them as the last life-drop 
of their own hearts had gone down in death, not 
seeing the desire they had so long cherished. 
Buried far from all their sacred and venerated 
places in a heathen land, deep had been the bereave- 
ment of their survivors. 

It is impossible for us to-day in our happy homes, 
and in this beautiful temple now to be dedicated 
to God, to fully comprehend their situation and 
their sorrow. And yet we, heaven-favored as we 
are, are not unfamiliar with the aspect of adversity. 
I recall the faltering steps of an old man trudging 
wearily through the streets of Boston, gazing on 
the beautiful home where once he dispensed lordly 
cheer and hospitality and received the homage of 
men. Ah, pitiful was the sight ; and when cold and 
hungry he turned from the palace and the scenes 



A JOYFUL DEDICATION. 



251 



so dear to him, palace and scenes wrung from him 
by base and fiendish betrayal, the most stolid and 
stoical could not withhold their sympathy. Often 
have I entered his dark and desolate hovel and, 
remembering the fair Jerusalem of his sunnier 
years my prayers were mostly tears ; for, like the 
Jews by Babylon's stream we felt we could not 
sing the Lord's songs, nor pray as we had aforetime, 
in so strange a place. 

Now multiply that individual sorrow by the sor- 
row of a nation numbering millions and you will 
begin to measure up to the meaning of our text. 
For our text is the rainbow that spans the departing 
storm. Here we see not an individual simply but a 
nation in captivity, weeping over the departed glory 
and longing for the courts of Jerusalem once theii 
happy home ; a nation that had given the world such 
statesmen as Moses, Joseph and Daniel, and such 
warriors as Joshua, Gideon and David, and such 
prophets as Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel ; a nation 
whose deeds are written, with letters of lightning, 
across every page of history; a nation producing 
such men as Enoch and Elijah, too good to die and 
escorted by celestial throngs into heaven, riding in 
the chariot and behind the chargers of Jehovah — 
this nation we see " in exile far away" eating the 
bitter bread of bondage. 

But the day breaks. A crown of gold encircles 
the dark brow of every night. Their prayers and 
penitent faith touch the heart of God, and God 



252 



A JOYFUL DEDICATION. 



touches the heart of the pagan King. Darius, their 
persecutor, becomes Darius their patron. The 
wealth they had amassed for others is suddenly 
heaped upon themselves. Thus do " all things work 
together for good to those who love God," even 
though sin at first triumphs and love is long belat- 
ed. With letters patent from the King, and the 
treasuries of Persia suddenly opened to them they 
return to Jerusalem "with songs and everlasting 
joy" to rebuild the temple and rekindle the fires 
upon the altars, bringing many converts with them; 
precious proofs of their fidelity to God throughout 
the awful nightmare of years of bondage. And' 
"they kept the dedication of the house of God with 

joy." 

Oh ye, who once were in captivity to Satan, but 
who are made free by One greater than Darius, and 
ye who though still in captivity may be liberated 
this very hour, rejoice in the dedication of this, an- 
other temple for preaching, prayer and praise. 
I would remark : 

I. 

REJOICE IN YOUR MATERIAL PROSPERITY. 

What advancement do we here behold ! On this 
spot where, less than 100 years ago, Indians 
encamped and prairie fires raged undisturbed now 
stands this worship-inviting temple. What wisdom 
too is manifested. Every dollar of property, for 
miles around, is enhanced in value by this enter- 



A JOYFUL DEDICATION. 



253 



prise ; and when we consider that every ten hours 
a new church is opened, a new Sabbath school and 
pulpit begin their work of eternal helpfulness, we 
begin to have some idea of the financial blessings the 
gospel is bestowing upon property-builders and 
property-owners. 

We rejoice still farther in the fact that evangel- 
ical religion is represented in this Amazonian and 
Mississippian stream of Gospel beneficence. We 
hear much of so-called liberal Christianity. We 
are told that the trend of the times is toward the 
unorthodox type of religion. They would have us 
believe the piety of our praying parents has become 
an effete and antiquated curiosity. 

What are the facts in the case ? 

Statements are often delusive ; facts are always 
decisive. Let us appeal to statistics. In 1850 
Evangelical Christians had 3,030 churches; so- 
called Liberal Christians had 1,315 churches. In 
18S0 Evangelical Christians had 97,090 churches — 
a gain, in thirty years, of 94 3 060. The so-called 
Liberal Christians in 1880 had 1,291 churches — a loss, 
in thirty years, of thirty-four churches. Thus in the 
golden era of so-called Liberalism their cause actu- 
ally declined, while evangelicals, sore beset on 
every hand multiplied by tens of hundreds, and by 
hundreds of thousands. 

But rejoice still farther in that our beloved 
Methodism from 1860 to 1880 alone, kept pace with 
the ratio of our increase in population. In 1860 



254 



A JOYFUL DEDICATION. 



Methodism had 8,000,000 adherents; in 1880, 
15,000,000 — an increase of 87-J- per cent. The Bap- 
tists, in 1860, numbered 8,000,000; in 1880, 12,000,- 
000 — an increase of 50 per cent. The Presbyter- 
ians in 1860 had 3,600,000 adherents; in 1880 they 
had reached 5,500 000 — an increase of 53 per cent. 
And this increase in our Evangelical forces is repre- 
sented in churches, hospitals, orphanages, great pub- 
lishing houses, and institutions of learning out of 
which pour the sons and daughters who are soon to 
control the destiny of our "land of the free and 
home of the brave." I rejoice with you in this glad 
hour of fruition. Your prayers are answered, God 
is honored, and Zion moves gloriously on. Our own 
churches, not to mention our honored sister denom- 
inations, will soon represent in America in build- 
ings alone $300,000,000. 
But secondly : 

3 ii. 

REJOICE BECAUSE SO LARGE A STREAM OF PROSPERITY 
IS THUS TURNED INTO THE CHANNEL OF RELIGION. 

This temple, open or closed, will bear eloquent 
testimony. Each spire will be an index finger, 
pointing saint and scoffer alike, to God. "Like the 
stars so still and saintlike," every visible bit of wood 
and brick and mortar and stone will quicken the 
aspiration of every devout soul, as well as stir the 
memory of those who once were purer and better 
than now. This church will stand as a monument 



A JOYFUL DEDICATION. 255 

of faith, of self-denial, and of sacrifice; " I believed 
therefore have I spoken." Here salvation through 
the infinite Christ, will be offered unto the lost, and 
the " faith once delivered to the saints," will be 
earnestly and eloquently expounded. 

Here work of a certain kind, is promised. Com- 
ing along your streets this evening I read over the 
door of a brilliant room : " Grand Opening." I 
inquired : "grand opening of what?" They answered : 
" Of a saloon." Ah, work will be done there. Men 
will be transformed into fiends, children into idle 
and ignorant, shameless and worthless imps, and 
once happy wives into wretched, woe-begone wid- 
ows. "Would you read the record of the saloon? 
Go then to the court, hospital, pawn shop, insane 
asylum, almshouse, jail, penitentiary and gallows. 
And yet you good Christian people will allow this 
heartless Juggernaut to destroy your fairest, your 
noblest, and your best. 

But I see another grand opening: This time it is 
a mammoth foundry. Out from it will roll the 
helpful implements and machinery that assist in 
spreading and fashioning our civilization. The 
foundry opening I hail with cheer. 

But here is another : The ponderous doors of a 
great jewel-factory are swung open, From this 
establishment will be sent forth all manner of 
devices for use and for ornament. We welcome 
this enterprise because labor and capital mutually 
serve each other, and increase each other's happiness 
and well-being. 



2o6 A JOYFUL DEDICATION. 

b 

Here is another : It is a piano and organ factory. 
This, too, we welcome. Far back in the forest and 
the mountain, woodman and miner are refreshed and 
rejoiced by this output of capital and skill. Farther 
down the miller and the smelter, preparing the wood 
and metal, have their share in the profits. Then 
factory hands, wareroom renters, advertisers and 
agents come in for their pay ; and finally the con- 
sumer squares the account with all, from the forester 
and miner down. Nor does he complain. In beau- 
tiful, cultured, home-loving children he has his 
reward ; and besides, while he is buying their prod- 
ucts, they are buying his, and it is simply barter 
after all. 

We are still farther confronted by another grand 
opening : It is a magnificent school, equipped 
with all the modern appliances, and supplied with 
the foremost teachers. Here minds will be enlarged 
and developed, culture and refinement will be 
fostered and promoted, and grace and usefulness, 
refinement of head and hand and heart will have a 
glorious union. We felicitate ! We congratulate ! 

But last and greatest of all, we come to the grand 
opening of a church. What does the church prom- 
ise ? Many things. It promises salvation to the 
lost. Here the drunken and degraded, thrown out 
of employment at foundry and factory, and driven 
at last from the saloon because he is friendless and 
penniless, will find welcome, brotherly love, and 
an eternal salvation. Here the student, cultured 



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257 



in the family and intellectually illuminated in the 
schools, with great promise of usefulness and honor, 
but dethroned and dishonored by the minions of 
Satan will cleanse his garments, purify his soul and 
walk in newness and completeness of life. Here you 
will see men passing through the dark and tear- 
bedewed valley of repentance until they touch God 
by faith and rise transfigured by His power, and 
sweeping on, come to the everlasting joys of heavem 
singing with radiant countenances : 

"Jesus, lover of my soul, 
Let me to Thy bosom fly;" 

Or 

" Rock of Ages, cleft for me 
Let me hide my c elf in Thee." 

III. 

WE REJOICE IN THE PATRIOTISM OF THE CHURCH. 

Patriotism and Religion are inseparable hand- 
maids. Church and State are the two pillars on 
which rests the arch of stable government. The 
church is the hotbed of patriotism and the training 
school of patriots. I mean, of course, the evangel- 
ical church. Christ taught devotion to civil 
authority when He said : " Eender therefore unto 
Csesar the things that are Csesar's." Paul voiced 
the same sentiment when to traitors he declared : 
" The powers that be are ordained of God." The 
true church has guided the march of civilization. 
The foot-prints are plain from Adam to Abraham, 



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from Isaac to Moses, from Joshua to the Egyptian, 
Persian, Grecian and Eoman conservators of help- 
ful government down to the time of Christ, and 
from thence to the present day. 

Who saved Egypt from a frightful famine by 
seven years of thrift and frugality ? It was the 
godly Joseph, devout and chaste and undefiled. 
Who fired the hearts of Ahab's young men in the 
moment of their surrender to Ben-had ad, and pre- 
vented that dire calamity? Another of God's 
faithful servants. Who saved the life of Naaman, 
Assyria's Captain General ? Another of God's 
faithful servants ; a little girl— a slave, but a stu- 
dent of the Word of God. Who delivered Babylon 
in the hour of impending destruction, and by faith 
bound it to the very throne of God ? Children who 
had lighted their torches at Israel's altars. - 

With joy we open this church, a school for the 
education of men— men who shall marshall forces 
and organize armies for the overthrow of all 
national enemies, even though they come in the 
guise of religion. What is the crucible that puri- 
fies, and the vinculum that holds together our 
teeming millions ? Not the standing army, for we 
have next to none ; not police forces, municipal, 
state or national ; not political parties. Oh, no ! 
The crucible and the vinculum is not in civil or 
social compact or code but in the omnipotent might 
of the invisible Christ who constantly ministers in 
His church. 



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259 



Every Sabbath, millions of people pour into these 
churches to worship God. Other millions pour in 
and are profoundly influenced. From these sacred 
surroundings and associations they go out into all 
the busy marts of trade and commerce, and profes- 
sional life and society is permeated with a divine 
leaven that leaveneth the whole lump. 

A celebrated infidel left New England to estab- 
lish a colony in which no Bible should ever be 
brought or prayer be offered. Time rolled on and 
the second generation appeared. Then the trouble 
began in earnest. Impiety and godlessness were 
written in capitals and italics on every face. 
Schools dwindled down to nothing and the chil- 
dren, lacking in gentility, culture and morality, 
awakened the direst apprehensions on every hand. 
A missionary entered the colony and began his 
beneficent work, but was driven out with rude 
violence. At this the infidel founder assembled 
the people and said: " Friends, I am from the East 
where Bibles are read and prayers offered. I came 
here to get away from ministers and churches ; but 
when I see the kind of men such society produces, 
I am shocked beyond measure. And from this time 
I am in favor of the Bible, for I have five daugh- 
ters, and I would rather follow them to the grave 
than to see them marry any of the sons born and 
educated in this godless community." 



260 



A JOYFUL DEDICATION. 



IV. 

WE REJOICE TO-DAY BECAUSE HERE WE FIND ANOTHER 
PLACE OF REFUGE AND PEACEc 

Christ is the Rock of Ages, the inexhaustible 
source of peace, and He deigns to dwell in houses 
made with hands. God help us to fly to this place 
of refuge and drink continuously at the fountain of 
unspeakable peace ! 

Garibaldi said : " Bibles are the cannons that 
must emancipate Italy." But that Nature-crowned, 
Pope-crushed land, refused to accept its teachings, 
and thousands of men destroyed and millions of 
money expended paid the price of their folly. 

Gen. Grant said : "The Bible is the sheet 
anchor of our Nation;" and Thomas Jefferson's 
testimony was none the less positive and eloquent. 
The immortal Abraham Lincoln after the battle of 
Bull Bun was found in the Blue Room of the 
Executive Mansion praying. And in his prayer, 
as reported by Carpenter, he said among other 
things : " Oh, thou God of my father, as Thou 
didst give wisdom unto Solomon so grant wisdom 
unto me." And to-day it is the establishment of 
such churches as this, and the dissemination of this 
blessed Book that has wrought the wonderful peace 
sentiment throughout the world. Let this glorious 
work but be prosecuted as you are resolved to prose- 
cute it here and the day is not far distant when the 
sword shall be wrought into a ploughshare and the 



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261 



spear into a pruning hook. Oh ye peace societies, 
ye arbitration committees, ye apostles of universal 
disarmament of soldiers, and disbanding of armies 
if ye would be successful, build churches, scatter the 
Bible, and in all ways possible hasten the triumphs 
of Messiah's kingdom. 

But neglect your church and your Bible and you 
may bid farewell to all our glorious institutions, 
and our civilization though crowned and jeweled 
to-day will eventually join Ephesus, Nineveh, 
Babylon, Sodom and Gomorrah in the 

1 ' Death darkened regions of night." 

God save us from such a catastrophe ! May God 
keep His hand on the shuttles of our national life, 
and the great Messiah continue His onward progress ! 

Let politicians quarrel over the spoils of office, 
statesmen discuss the tariff, scientists cut every 
Gordian knot and philosophers puzzle over the im- 
practicable and ofttimes nonsensical, but let men 
and women of God, keep on building churches, sing- 
ing songs of redemption, offering prayers of fervent 
faith, scattering light aud beneficence until all the 
nations of the earth come to the dedication of that 
temple which needeth no artificial light, " for the 
Lamb is the Light thereof." 

WE REJOICE BECAUSE GOD ASSURES US OF HIS 
PRESENCE HERE. 

God is indeed everywhere ; but He is in a spe- 
cial sense in certain places. He is in the church, 



262 



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dedicated to Him by loving hands and hearts, as 
He is nowhere else. Let this thought thrill your 
hearts to-day. God is here ! I am in my heavenly 
Father's presence. I feel the touch of His hand. I 
hear the sound of His voice. I feel the inbreathing 
of His Holy Spirit. He acknowledges me ! He 
adopts me ! All is well. This is, indeed the gate- 
way of heaven ; the portal of Paradise. 

"Heaven comes down my soul to greet, 
While glory crowns the Mercy Seat !" 

By faith I enter here the Holy of Holies. 

"Arise, my soul arise ! 

Shake off thy guilty fears 1 
The bleeding Sacrifice 

In my behalf appears. 
Before the throne my Surety stand s, 
My name is written on His hands. 

" Five bleeding wounds He bears, 
Received on Calvary ; 
They pour effectual prayers, 

They strongly plead for me : 
' Forgive Him, O forgive they cry, 
' Nor let that ransomed sinner die."' 

" The Father hears Him pray, 
H s dear anointed One ; 
He cannot turn away 

The presence of His Son : 
His Spirit answers to the blood, 
And tells me I am born of God. 

" My God is reconciled ; 

His pardoning voice I hear: 
He owns me for His child; 

I can no longer fear: 
With confidence I now draw nigh, 
And ' Father, Abba, Father ' cry. 1 ' 



A JOYFUL DEDICATION. 



263 



Nov is this a momentary experience, some seasons 
in the sunshine and then again in the shadow, but 
constant as it is blessed. 

" Here shines undimmed one blissful day 
For all my night has passed away. 

44 The Saviour comes and walks with me, 
And sweet communion here have we; 
He gently leads me with His hand, 
For this is heaven's borderland. 

"The zephyr seems to float to me, 
Sweet sounds of heaven's m lody, 
As angels, with the white-robed throng, 
Join in the sweet redemption song." 

But we shall have more than ecstatic joy at these 
altars in the presence of God. Here we shall drink 
in the wisdom of God and be transformed into the 
image of His Son. Whatever good may come to 
us in hours of ecstasy, in heart-communings in for- 
mulating thought and aspiration into song and 
sermon, prayer and testimony, the greatest blessing 
of all will be the knowledge of God's approval and 
favor, and oar continually increasing likeness to 
our Redeemer and Lord. 

Oh the favor of God — that is what righteous 
Abel had ; the disfavor of God sat like a starless 
crown of night on the brow of the jealous, disobe- 
dient Cain. Let not the lesson be lost upon you. 
Come, like Abel, to this altar and God's blessing 
will fall upon you as the dews fell upon and re- 
freshed the roses of Sharon. 



264 



A JOYFUL DEDICATION. 



Abram sat, as in the presence of God, all day 
watching the sacrifice. The sun scorched, the 
people scoffed, the birds annoyed ; but at the even- 
tide God came and said : " Thou shalt go unto thy 
fathers in peace, 5 ' and the promise was blessedly 
fulfilled. The place of sacrifice was Abram's altar 
as this newly consecrated place is yours. 

God walked forth into the mountain when Jesus 
was transfigured and said : " This is my beloved 
Son in whom I am well pleased, 5 ' and Peter would 
have tarried at that altar forever. " Lord, it is 
good for us to be here," was his exclamation. 

Oh beloved, it is good for us to be here to-day. 
To each and every obedient child the great Father 
of us all is saying, as of old, " Thou art my beloved 
Son — Thou art my beloved Daughter — in whom I 
am well pleased." God's presence is pledged wher- 
ever His name is recorded. " I will come unto 
thee," has been the pledge of the ages. To-day is 
that pledge fulfilled in your midst. Nor does He 
simply promise to come into this holy place, but 
more. He promises, O overwhelming thought, to 
come into every open and willing heart. Let this 
then be the language of every soul in this audience: 

"O come to my heart Lord Jesus ! 
There is room in my heart for thee ! " 

Coleridge once said: " Every drop of rain en- 
countered in a storm has, under God, a mission." 
How sublime is life with this thought. Go stand 
in the pelting storm and think of every tiny drop 



A JOYFUL DEDICATION. 



265 



of rain having a mission, meeting anticipated wants 
and supplying them as nothing else could. So God 
comes into these courts of praise which you erect to 
His honor. He comes. He comes now. He 
comes to supply every want. Oh beloved, ask 
largely that your joys may be full. 

Into every church, into the heart of every 
true believer, the infinite God comes with all 
the infinitudes of His matchless grace. This 
was the occasion of David's joy when he ex- 
claimed: u Let us go inta the house of the Lord. 

* * * One thing have I desired of the 
Lord that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the 
house of the Lord forever." 

And now suffer a few closing remarks. And 

1. Let joy and gratitude he unrestrained. You 
have been wonderfully blessed of God. You have 
had the favor of the people in a marked degree. 
Not one Darius, but many, have come to your as- 
sistance. Let no heart be downcast to-day. Let no 
murmurings sit upon your lips. Let no drop of 
bitterness distill in your heart. Be joyful ! Be 
grateful ! 

2. Souls should he saved now. At that ancient 
dedication to which our text refers, their joy was 
increased by the presence of Persian converts. 
Large numbers came with them to this dedication, 
who having separated themselves from the filth- 
iness of sin and the entanglements of sinners were 
ready to eat the passover with them. This display 



266 



A JOYFUL DEDICATION, 



of power to save was a seal of God's approval. 
Why should not He seal your devotion and sacri- 
fices to-day by the salvation of precious immortal 
souls? How you would rejoice ! How these hearts 
would thrill with joy unspeakable. Nor should 
sinners only receive help from heaven to-day. 
Believers ought to enter into a deeper and pro- 
founder experience and then go forth to a wider 
and diviner usefulness in winning souls. Let the 
prayer of the whole church now be : " Create within 
me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit 
within * * - Uphold me with Thy free Spirit. 
Then will I teach transgressors Thy ways ; and sin- 
ners shall be converted unto Thee," 

3. Your offerings of praise and prayer and 
testimony and material things will he indicative : 
Of a desire to please God. Thus God said to 
David: " Thou didst well in that it was in thine 
heart to build a house for My name." But not only 
is God pleased by bringing our tithes into the 
storehouse, but we ourselves are rewarded. " Bring 
ye all the tithes into the storehouse * * * and 
prove Me * saith the Lord of Hosts, if I will not 
open the windows of heaven, and pour you out a 
blessing, that there shall not be room enough to 
receive it." Oh that showers of blessings might fall 
upon us now ! 

But your offerings will be an evidence to your 
loved ones, your families, your city and your nation. 
Tou recall the centurion coming to Jesus. His 



A JOYFUL DEDICATION. 



267 



son was sick unto death. The people pleaded with 
Jesus to go, saying: "He who sends is worthy, for 
he loveth our nation and has built for us a syna- 
gogue," and forthwith the Master went. Thus the 
offerings for houses of worship were recognized as an 
evidence of patriotism in the days of our Lord. 

This church is your home. Here you will com- 
mune with God ; here hold delightful fellowship 
with friends and saints of God. Around these 
altars you will often kneel, and you will rejoice as 
loved ones arise with radiant countenances having 
found their Saviour. Here orange blossoms will 
freight the atmosphere and wedding bells will ring 
out their merry chimes. From this hallowed spot 
those dearer to you than life will be borne with 
solemn tread ; and finally your turn will come when 
you shall wrap the drapery of your couch about you 
and ascend to the realms of light. 



THE END, 



